The Life of a Vampiress
by ArraWintle
Summary: This is my latest and edited version of my story. It has 25 chapters and it is not finished yet. Please R&R if you love Darren Shan as much as I do lol.
1. Chapter 1 A new Beginning

**Have you ever wondered what it is like to be a Vampiress?**

**Chapter one a New Beginning**

**One day I was walking home from school and it was rather dark outside being a cold November night, the sun had already set and I was taking a short cut through a col de sac and that would lead to the lane that would take me to my front door. I loved going outside at night time but tonight was different. **

**Normally the col de sac was deserted and silent as the grave but not tonight as there was a creepy looking man handing out flyers to anybody who passed his way.**

**This man looked to be in his forties and he saw me approaching. I got one good look at his face and he was actually rather handsome or so I thought anyway- I mean he was fit! I walked up to him and he gave me one of the flyers. **

"**Thank you" I said.**

"**You are welcome. Who are you?" The guy asked me.**

"**My name is Sarah. Who might you be?" I asked and upon hearing his voice I felt very strange indeed.**

"**I am Larten Crepsley. I am working at a local circus. My job is to give out these advertisement flyers" Larten said.**

"**Do you perform on stage?" I asked.**

"**Of course, my spider Madam Octa and I have an act" Larten explained.**

"**Wow, I adore spiders. Can I come to the show?" I asked.**

"**If you were to buy a ticket then yes" Larten said.**

"**Alright I will take two tickets for me and my friend Lizzie" I said.**

"**I do not have the tickets, you have to go to the theatre and buy them there. The tickets are fifteen pounds each and you only get two tickets per flyer" Larten explained.**

"**Very well I will go there straight away. I am looking forward to this show" I said.**

"**There is no need I will go. I have to return to get more flyers anyway so I will not be long. Do you have the money?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes. Here is the cash" I said as I handed over the money.**

**I watched this man, this Larten Crepsley walk away and then he vanished. I mean he literally vanished and he reappeared about twenty minutes later holding the tickets out for me to take. **

"**How did you do that vanishing thing? You moved so quickly" I asked.**

"**Speed is relative. I will see you at the show. What is your last name?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am Sarah Jane Louise Wintle and you are just Larten Crepsley? No middle names?" I asked.**

"**I have no middle names as my parents did not think that it was necessary" Larten said.**

"**Oh right, that is fair enough. I will see you at the show then Larten" I said.**

"**I prefer Mr Crepsley but for you I could make an exception" Larten said.**

"**Alright then I had better go home now as I am late" I said and I left to go home.**

**When I woke up the next morning I felt puzzled because for some reason I knew when the show was and where it was which made no sense to me as the flyer and tickets did not tell me. **

**For some even more peculiar reason I could not for the life in me stop thinking about Mr Crepsley. Were we together in a previous life? I wondered to myself. What on Earth would my parents think when they returned from their holiday? **

**I pondered these questions over and over in my now seemingly larger brain, I felt like I had a sudden understanding and a greater grasp on reality than what I had thought before. Also I noticed that I looked different, when I went to wash and clean my teeth I looked in the bathroom mirror and I saw that I was the same but different. I could not put my finger on it but the change was there. It made no sense and I did not exactly want to ask anyone in case they thought that I had come down with some kind of mental illness. **

**I went to school that day and I could not concentrate at all, I had some tests to do and normally I was good and nearly always had full marks but today I got most of the answers wrong and I could not fathom why, even my teacher was surprised. I stayed after school and I did some extra work but it made no difference I just could not get Mr Crepsley off of my mind, it was like he had some hold over me that I could not explain. It was totally freaky but I ignored it and I focused on what was actually there and not some strange illogical feeling that I was having.**

**Chapter 2 Larten's visit**

**After I came home from school that day I fixed myself and my brother some food and then I went upstairs to watch the television. We had a television downstairs but to avoid arguing with my brother over the remote control I had my own television. I guess that many people can relate to this, nearly everyone I know argues with their siblings over the television remote and if it is not the television remote it is the PlayStation 2 controller. **

**I secretly hoped that Mr Crepsley and I would see each other before the show, I hardly knew him but already I missed his company and his eyes. I was transfixed by his eyes; deeper than the ocean and blue like a sapphire, I could not help but gaze into them as it was like hypnosis. I could still move and think although I had no desire to move or think when he was around me. **

**I heard a knocking at my window that evening and sure enough it was Mr Crepsley who was knocking on my window. I let him in at once for it was cold and it was raining outside. Mr Crepsley took off his travelling cloak and sat down in my swivel chair that was next to my bed and my computer desk. I was sitting up in bed watching a re-run of South Park when he arrived. I switched my television off and then we started talking.**

"**So how have you been Mr Crepsley? Is everything ok with you?" I asked.**

"**Things are good, I have been practicing my act for the circus and I have been keeping an eye on things, to make sure that you are safe" Mr Crepsley replied.**

"**Thank you Mr Crepsley. This may sound crazy to you but from the moment I met you I have not been able to stop thinking about you, your eyes have me transfixed" I said.**

"**That is often the way, ladies fall at my feet wherever I go. I do not brag but they cannot resist me and you are no exception I see and you may call me Larten if you wish" Larten said.**

"**It is true that I am no exception Larten, I want you to hold me close to you for some unfathomable reason, I want to kiss you too, though that makes no sense as I have never done it before and we barely know each other. I mean why are you here?" I blurted out without thinking about it.**

"**I am here because I thought that you would like to see me. I saw the look in your eyes when you looked at me. I know that you like me though you barely know me and as for the other thing which you spoke of that can be arranged. However you must not get too attached to me, you may not always be able to be with me and I may have to leave for long periods of time and not return until my business is complete" Larten explained.**

"**Very well, I guess that is how it is for a circus performer, always moving around and never stopping in one place for too long. I see why I cannot get attached to you" I answered.**

"**There is one way that we could be together however it requires a major sacrifice on your part. You could join me as my assistant and leave this life behind in exchange for a new one. I would be responsible for your care as your mentor. How about it Sarah? Would you like to be my assistant?" Larten asked me.**

"**Let me get back to you on that one" I said in response.**

**At this point Larten took off his shirt, shoes and his socks then he got into my bed, we faced each other and looked into each other's eyes. I only had a single bed so I squeezed up next to the wall and then I felt Larten's body pressed up against mine, his bare chest against my night dress. Larten had his arm around me and we were facing each other side on, I could feel his body heat and his breathing, I felt very tingly inside. Our heads inched closer together until Larten was almost on top of me, he was supporting himself and he was holding my weight as well. **

**We lay there together; I think that I must have fallen asleep in his arms because when I opened my eyes he was still there holding me close to him. I felt warm and safe, I had no need of a blanket as Larten's cloak covered us both over, I put my arm out and touched him; it was nice to have skin to skin contact. Then came the moment I had been waiting for, I tilted my head slightly to rest it on Larten's chest and he came in and kissed me as I came forward. I was quite unprepared for this but he took it slowly and soon his tongue was pulsing in my mouth and mine was doing the same in his. It felt amazing, deep and full of lust but soft enough so I wasn't overwhelmed.**

**Larten didn't just kiss me, he held me and he had his hand on my skin the whole time. After a while we stopped kissing and we just held each other, I was looking deeply into his eyes and he was looking into mine with just as much intent. **

**I soon went back to sleep and when I awoke again it was morning and Larten was still there holding me close, like I was some precious item that was worthy of his protection. Larten must have felt me move because at that moment he too arose and saw the sunlight streaming through my window.**

"**It looks like I am stuck here until sunset so shall we make the most of our time together?" Larten asked me. **

"**Is it wise to make the most of it? We hardly know each other and I am a real lady. I have never been with a man before in any sense until last night"**

**I said nervously.**

"**I would like to get to know you a bit better. You are right though, I should not have stayed over last night but as the sun has risen I am now stuck here until it sets again" Larten replied.**

"**Why are you stuck here until sunset Larten? By the way I have decided that I would like to be your assistant if that is OK with you still?" I asked.**

"**I am a vampire Sarah that is why I cannot face the sun and yes you can be my assistant if you want to be. I do not expect you to believe me about the vampire thing but I can prove it" Larten replied.**

"**Are you telling me that I have shared my bed with and had my first kiss with a vampire and now I can become one too?" I asked.**

"**Yes that is exactly what I am saying Sarah. Look at my scars on my fingers. All vampires have them Sarah when we are blooded" Larten explained as he held up his fingertips so that I could see the scars.**

"**It must be great to be a vampire. I have always wanted to meet one and now that I have met you I feel very lucky and privileged" I said then I continued;**

"**It sounds really exciting to be a vampire Larten"**

"**Being a vampire is a hard life Sarah. There are pros and cons. It is generally alright if you like to live rough or in a mountain" Larten replied.**

"**Alright Larten I understand. Can you make me a vampiress now please?" I asked again.**

"**I should warn you that becoming a vampiress is rather painful. Are you sure about this? There can be no going back and it means that you will have to leave this life behind forever if I do this to you" Larten explained.**

"**I do not care Larten. My life is awful and I know that you will give me a much better life" I said.**

**Alright then Sarah if you are sure about this would you hold up your hands?" Larten asked so I held up my hands and I felt Larten dig his sharp nails into my own fingertips. I felt Larten press his own bleeding fingers up against mine whilst the blood was transferred from him to me and back again through the wounds on our fingers.**

**I felt this strange tingling pain all up my arms, it lasted until Larten broke free and then he healed his wounds by sucking his fingers before he did the same to my own wounds. **

**I knew that I was no longer a human being, I didn't care this was my dream and it had finally come true. Then Larten spoke;**

"**How was that Sarah? Are you alright?" Larten asked.**

"**I am Ok I think Larten but that hurt like a bitch" I complained.**

"**I know it hurts but it is over now and you my dear are a vampiress. After the show I will help you to fake your death so that you can take your place as my assistant now that you have been blooded.**

"**Alright then Larten but I do not just want to be your assistant. I want to be your girlfriend" I replied.**

"**I thought that would be the case. I have no problems with that if that is what you want Sarah" Larten replied then he smiled in a suggestive way.**

"**Well if that is the case you had better make me yours then" I said.**

"**What do you want me to do Sarah?" Larten asked.**

"**Prove to me that you want me" I said.**

"**Alright I shall prove it" Larten said. He moved like lightning, he held me close to him before he kissed me. It was deeper and more passionate than what it had been previously. I could feel Larten's tongue pulsing in my mouth and I loved it. **

"**Are we going to have sex?" I asked.**

"**Not unless you want to have sex" Larten replied.**

"**Well I did tell you to make me your own Larten and if I gave you my innocence then that would be OK I think" I said.**

"**Are you a virgin?" Larten asked.**

"**Of course I am a virgin. I told you that I have never been with a guy before you kissed me" I said.**

"**Well I can break you in if you wish but we should wait until the vampire blood has had time to kick in" Larten said.**

**Then Larten left to prepare for the show. He climbed out of my window and he kissed me before he vanished into the darkness in a red blur.**

**Chapter 3 the Freak Show**

**The night of the freak show came and I went alone to watch it, I wanted to bring my friend Lizzie but she was busy. I was so looking forward to watching Larten's act, his spider sounded like no other spider that I had ever seen or heard of and I was right. **

**Madam Octa was Larten's spider, she was both extremely rare and very beautiful, her green striped legs and her mystic purple body made me envy her. **

**I watched Larten's part of the act with great anticipation, I think he saw me in the audience; I was on one of the middle rows in the centre. **

"**Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my act, Madam Octa and myself will be performing some tricks for your entertainment, do not clap or move until told to do so, any noise could cause danger or death, Madam Octa is both beautiful and lethal, one bite means certain death to that unfortunate party; you have been warned." Larten said. **

**Then the act began. Larten had the spider climb up him, swing down on a thread and then sway back and forth to a tune that he was playing on a flute. He had her sit at a table and she ate a meal and then Larten had the spider tap dance almost and do a few other tricks. I watched in utter awe as Madam Octa performed and Larten was not bad either, he did a few things as well but it was the spider's act really. **

**At the end of the performance there was lots of clapping and cheering, every single person loved it, I loved it and the rest of the show was brilliant, there was a man with two bellies, a boy who was half human, half snake, a pair of twins who were double jointed contortionists, a man who could play musical tunes on his ribs, a lady with teeth like steel, a man who could cut off his body parts in grow them back instantly and that was it. I bought some souvenirs and then I left, it was one of the best circuses that I had ever seen. **

**Larten must have seen me because I saw a flash of red and then he was in front of me. **

"**This is Madam Octa" Larten said as he held up the wooden cage for me to see.**

"**Madam Octa is beautiful, I love her and I am a big spider fan. The show was incredible, I loved the twins and your act, the others were great as well and I bought some souvenirs to remind me of the show" I said.**

"**I am glad you enjoyed the show, I saw you in the audience watching us and I knew that you would enjoy it so that is why I invited you. Have you felt anything yet?" Larten asked me.**

"**In answer to your question I did feel strangely hungry today and I was very tired but now I am ok, I can see better and I heard some noises that I had not heard before. I think that the blood you gave me has started to kick in" I replied.**

"**I thought that the blood would have started to kick in by now, it does not take long. Soon you will feed properly but for now drink this; it will keep you going until we feed together" Larten said and he handed me a bottle of red liquid.**

**I drank from it; it was fresh blood and still warm. I gagged to start with but then I got used to it and finished the bottle quickly. It made me feel alive, I felt very strange; I was buzzing like I had devoured a can of energy drink or something. **

"**How was that?" Larten asked me.**

"**Strange, now I feel a lot stronger and I feel like I have new energy waiting to be used" I replied.**

"**Good that is what you should feel after you have drunk blood that was why I gave it to you. You need to drink regularly or you will die, you will not need any more blood now for a month" Larten said as he held out his hands. **

**I took Larten's hands and he hoisted me above his head and on to his back. **

"**Hold on tight, this is going to be fun" Larten said and he started to jog, then he went into a flat out sprint and soon the whole countryside was going past in a blur, I held my breath and held on tight.**

"**Where are we?" I asked when Larten had stopped.**

"**We are at my home where you may live with me whilst the circus is in this town. After that you must return home. We will then fake your death and you will then join me at the vampire council" Larten explained to me as I got off of his back. Larten's home was little more than a hayloft that had been converted by himself. It had all the hay in it still but it had a table, two chairs, some basic shelves and a cupboard. The cupboard had the cutlery and crockery in it, the pots and pans were hanging up on rope that was attached to the rafters. There was also a small gas camping stove and a gas lantern. **

"**Welcome home, I appreciate it is not a house but it is good enough, here you will be warm and dry. Also you will be safe from enemies who would seek to have you as a trophy" Larten said. He then folded up his cloak and put it neatly by his bed which was a coffin filled with hay and a pillow.**

"**Well it is a nice hayloft, where is the farmer? Does he mind you setting up home here?" I asked.**

"**No, I have an arrangement with him, I do a few jobs for him and I keep the rabbits away and in return I can live here for as long as I need to." Larten replied.**

"**Oh right, fair enough, I guess you snare the rabbits and eat them so they do not eat the corn" I said**

"**That is exactly right, I do not just get rabbits though, pigeons and other vermin fall foul of the pot, I make game pie and a stew, or I do a roast on a spit" Larten said.**

"**Sounds like you can cook, I love meat, pie is my favourite but stew is great with thick bread or dumplings" I said.**

"**We will do just fine then, I enjoy cooking, I will teach you how to prepare stews and soups from what is around us. I will show you what plants you can eat and where to get nuts, seeds and berries whilst we are on the road" Larten said.**

"**That sounds like fun; I do not think that we will go hungry. Where do we get water from to wash with and to cook with?" I asked Larten.**

"**The farmer has kindly plumbed in a tap for me downstairs with clean water, he also buys some of the rabbits I catch, as a result I can buy some things in the local shop, and we can get eggs, bread and cheese, even milk if you wish" Larten explained.**

"**Well we seem to have it better than most people, where do I sleep? That coffin is not big enough for us both" I asked.**

**I will get you your own coffin or I will buy a bed, it has to be one of those foldable camping beds though, or we cannot take it with us. A sleeping bag would be good for you. You can get ones that are big enough for two people, for now though you may sleep in the coffin and I will sleep on that hay and I will make my cloak into a cover" Larten explained. **

"**You do not have to do that; I will sleep on the hay and use your cloak as a blanket if that is ok? You must not give up your bed for me though" I replied as I hung my coat up on a hook. **

"**As you wish, I will take the pillow out of my coffin and allow you to have it. I do not use it; it is just for the use of ladies. I prefer to sleep in a more primitive fashion" Larten said. **

"**Cool, thank you. I am so happy right now, but I am ravenous. What are you doing for our breakfast?" I asked.**

**I have a rabbit jointed in that pot and a partridge that can be roasted. I will make a meat medley with some wild fruits to make a jus and some nuts to have afterwards if you like" Larten offered.**

"**That would be great; I will go to the shop if its open and I will get some thick bread and some cream to add to the jus" I replied.**

"**The shop is a twenty four hour garage, take £5 and take this as well" Larten said as he handed me a rough £5 note and a scarf. **

"**It is not too cold is it?" I asked.**

"**It is minus three degrees out there, you will freeze. Wrap up warm I advise and do not be longer than you have to be" Larten instructed me.**

"**Very well, I thought vampires could take extreme cold and heat, I thought the blood makes us warm and we do not suffer as much" I said.**

"**That is true but not in your case as your vampiric blood has not had time to fully kick in yet. You will get stronger but the other advantages will take a while, however the blood you have consumed will speed things up, you should start feeling it in three days or so. Then the cold will no longer bother you and the heat will be no trouble at all for you. For now though follow my advice and wrap up warm." Larten told me as I wrapped the scarf around my neck.**

"**As you wish, I will not be long." I said as I left and ran through the field and down onto the track that lead to the shop. **

**I arrived in the shop, grabbed what I needed and went up to the counter, a fat woman with an apron on and tanned skin served me. I bought some cheese, thick bread, a box of stock cubes and some cream. I also got a pint of milk. **

"**£4.86 please" The fat woman whose name badge said Angela told me.**

"**Here you are, can I have a bag please?" I asked as I handed over the money.**

"**Certainly, that is fourteen pence change and your receipt, here is the bag, it is one of those strong ones" Angela said.**

"**Thanks a lot then, bye" I said as I left the shop and scurried back to the hay loft. Larten had been right about the cold, I was absolutely freezing by the time I got back. **

"**I got what you asked for and here is fourteen pence change. I got a couple of extra things so we can have lunch tomorrow" I explained.**

"**That is ok, you must be freezing and did my scarf serve you well?" Larten asked me as he put the food away in the cupboard.**

"**Yes, if nothing else my neck is warm. My fingers are freezing though; you were right about the cold. Thank you for letting me borrow your scarf; it was very kind of you to do so" I said.**

"**You are welcome, now the food is almost ready. Do you want to set the table or shall we eat vampire style?" Larten asked me.**

"**What is eating vampire style?" I asked curiously.**

"**Where we grab a spoon each or a fork and eat straight from the pot and we eat the meat with our hands rather than having it on a plate, it is more animalistic" Larten explained. **

"**That sounds fun, let us eat as you say vampire style, I hope I get enough to eat as I am so hungry" I said.**

"**You will get an equal share, I am not one to eat lots and deprive others" Larten said then he continued "it is ready now, let us eat" **

**At this point Larten took the pot off of the fire and we tucked in. The meat fell off of the bone as it was so tender and soon enough it was gone. All that was left were a few bones and an empty pot. **

"**That was really good, the sauce was lovely and the meat was cooked to perfection. I could get used to this" I said. **

"**I am glad you liked it, the food at the council will not be as good but it will keep you strong and satisfied" Larten said.**

**I took the pot and washed it up, I did the same with the forks and then I sat down in one of the chairs at the table, Larten joined me and we played cards until dawn, then we both curled up and I was soon dreaming of my life to come and how fun it would be now that I had Larten's blood in my veins. **

**The next evening I returned home and I started preparing to fake my death, my parents were due home so I had no choice but to leave Larten's side. I kissed him at the window and he kissed me back, then we parted. **

**I was scared about faking my own death but I knew that it was necessary if I wanted to spend my now extended life with Larten. I was excited at the prospect of the council; it would be nice to meet other vampires and other vampiresses. I would finally belong to the Clan and with someone like Larten looking out for me I would be safe and well looked after, I would also be loved which was the main thing. **

**Chapter 4 the Return of my Parents**

**I was looking forward to my parents coming home as I had not seen them for a while and when you miss people as much as I missed my parents it was understandable that I wanted to make the most of it with them before I had to leave them behind forever. **

**I also had to ensure that my brother was going to be ok, I was a bit worried about leaving him behind but I left him a gift of my games consoles and games so that he had a way of remembering all the fun we had staying up all night long playing games on two player mode. **

**My brother had been with our grandparents when I had seen the show and when I had spent my night away from home so he had no idea about it and it had to stay that way, however I did give him his presents that I had bought him from the circus, a Tee-shirt, a badge and some candy spider webs. He loved the shirt that said "freaks rock" across the front and on it was a picture of a huge wolf with its fangs bared. **

**The badge said "I'm not a freak, I am misunderstood" It was written in red across the front. **

**When my brother asked me where they had come from I said that one of my friends had given them to me and that I thought they would suit him more than me. We shared the candy webs between us; they were like jelly with a candy floss spider in the middle of each one. They tasted of cherry and cola or orange and lemon. We had six of each so we split them up and scoffed them. **

**I got myself some stuff from the circus too, I also got a Tee-shirt and a badge but mine were different, I had Larten on my shirt and Madam Octa on the badge, the shirt said "Watch out, vampires are about." And wasn't that the truth! **

**When my parents returned home I was happy to see them, they had been away on a working holiday for two weeks and I had been left in charge. **

"**I'm glad to see the house in one piece still; you didn't hold a huge party and trash the place then? That is a relief" said my dad as I helped him with his rather large, tattered suitcase. **

"**Well the place is clean but it's still a bit messy, at least you washed up. Where is Sam?" My mum asked.**

"**Sam is at Granny's along with George and Rusty" I replied.**

**Sam was my brother and George and Rusty were our two rescued tom cats that we had found as kittens and hand reared. **

"**Why are the cats with my mother? Was there a problem?" My mum asked.**

"**Not at all, Sam wanted to take them and Gran wanted to see them so they went in the carrier case and down the road. I hope you do not mind" I explained.**

"**Not at all it's probably good for them to meet different people and different smells; at least they won't be under my feet when I am cleaning. What time will they be home Sarah?" my mum asked.**

"**Um, Sam said around six because he wants to watch _The Simpsons_ but he is going to help Gran with the shopping first" I said.**

"**Oh that is nice, I will go and get the cats later then, right now we have some cleaning to do, at least you ate well. I can see the remnants of lasagne and chicken casserole" My mum replied.**

"**Well you did tell me to cook and you told me how to make these recipes, anyway, I will go and get the vacuum cleaner with the carpet washer attachments and then fill it up. The stains were made when Sam let the cats eat off of his plate on the floor and they made a mess. I told him not to but he would not listen to me" I explained.**

"**It is only a little mark; you won't need the vacuum for that, just a damp cloth and some Carpet Nurse" My mum said.**

**At this point I went into the kitchen and got the cloth and the Carpet Nurse out of the cleaning cupboard. I had cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen was fine except for a few plates that needed to be placed into the dishwasher. I would have done it already but there was already a full load in the dishwasher so I had to wait for the cycle to finish before it could be loaded up again. **

**It didn't take long and soon the house was clean and it looked like my parents hadn't been anywhere at all. I thought to myself that if I had to leave my parents behind then at least I could help out and do the best I could until it was time for me to fake my death and join Larten for good. **

**I was looking forward to the evening because Larten had promised me a visit and something special; I had no idea what it was. I hoped it would be another vial of blood or something like that. I was so thirsty it was stupid. **

**I could really feel my powers beginning to kick in now, I could see and hear things that I hadn't been able to before, my speed had increased and for some reason when I looked in the mirror my eyes flashed and they glowed red but only for a moment or two then they went back to normal. **

**I also wanted to hunt, I had an overwhelming urge to go outside at night, go into a field and bring down a deer and feed from it. I could also see in the dark far better than I could in the daylight, the light began to make my eyes hurt and soon I was tired in the daytime and awake at night. **

**When Larten arrived he had my gift, it was as I had thought a bottle of warm, freshly drained human blood. I drank it so fast that if not for my speed I would have choked. **

"**Thank you, you know that I needed that, I feel ok now. I had been feeling a bit tired" I said after I had licked my lips to get the last bit off. **

"**You are welcome; I could sense your thirst. I knew that you needed to feed even though you only fed two days ago, you have a high blood lust and that is not uncommon for newly blooded vampiresses it just means that you have to feed more frequently and you need to drink more when you do feed." Larten said to me, he climbed in to my room and then he sat on my bed next to me. I explained to him that my parents were back from holiday and that they were in the next room. **

"**That is no problem, we will not be stopping as I have come to take you out, and we are going to a great place that lots of vampires hang out at. It is called The Wild Grouse Tavern, have you heard of it?" Larten asked me. **

"**Yes I have but its miles away, I went there once and I met a nice guy there called Vanez Blaine. Do you know him Larten?" I asked.**

"**I do know him, he is one of us, he is the referee in the Games Room at the mountain and he is highly respected" Larten replied to me. **

"**Oh right, he was lovely, I went there because I was lost, there was a festival in the field down the road and I could not find my parents so he helped me out. I wonder if he will remember me, I was only twelve at the time, I am twenty one now" I explained. **

"**I am sure that he will remember you, he never forgets a face, what a surprise it will be if we bump into him again and he sees you with me" Larten said.**

"**I am ready when you are; I have my purse, my phone and my coat" I said and I hopped onto Larten's back once more and held on tightly to him like my life depended on it.**

**Larten leapt out of the window and soon we were on our way, the countryside was a blur and I could feel the wind whooshing past us as Larten continued his super-fast run which vampires call "Flitting". **

**Chapter 5 the Wild Grouse Tavern**

**We arrived at the tavern and we walked inside. I hung my coat up on one of the hooks and we went into the bar area. It had changed a lot since I had last visited, the decor was different and so were the people behind the bar but the fire place was the same and so was the bar itself. **

"**Ah Larten, long time no see, it has been fifteen years since you last visited, last time you brought Arra and you drunk no less than four barrels of ale. I do hope you have not come to do the same as we are nearly out of ale and the vodka is running low as well." The man behind the bar said.**

"**Not tonight, I have brought someone with me though, she has been here before but only once and that was before I knew her." Larten said.**

"**Evening, my name is Sarah, I have been recently blooded, I could murder a drink and a meal and I have not eaten since lunch time." I said.**

"**Ok, we have fresh blood, ale, beer, lager, spirits and human beverages. Food wise we have standard pub grub and an a la carte menu." The man behind the bar said.**

"**Ok, I think I will have vodka and diet coke, a steak and kidney pie with vegetables and for dessert a large piece of chocolate fudge cake. I have a debit card to pay for it all." I said**

"**Very well the machine for cards is over here, how old are you?" The guy asked.**

"**I have just turned twenty one; I have ID if you need it." I said.**

"**That is fine, I am sure that Larten will vouch for you anyway." The guy behind the bar replied.**

"**I certainly do vouch for Sarah, she and I are what you might call bonded by blood." Larten said as we sat at a table. **

**The food came and I ate the lot, I was so hungry, the vodka wasn't bad either, though it was not a brand that I usually drunk. **

**Just then a man and a lady with cloaks on walked in to the bar and I looked up to see who they were, I did not recognise either of them but Larten did.**

"**Gavnur, it has been years, since we last spoke, who is the lady with you?"**

**Larten asked.**

"**This is Amira, my girlfriend of six months" Gavnur said and then he went on to ask;**

"**Who is the lady with you then Larten? After you and Arra you said there was no other lady for you, mind you all those years on the road cannot have helped you" **

"**I am Sarah and I am Larten's assistant. I am going to the Council to meet the other Clan members soon" I explained to Gavnur. **

"**Oh right are you half or fully blooded?" Gavnur asked me.**

"**I have no idea. Larten am I fully blooded?" I asked.**

"**No, you are half-blooded, but you will be a great vampiress, I have no doubt of that" Larten replied to me.**

"**So I am sort of like you then but female? That is so cool" I replied.**

"**Well not exactly but you have me inside you and we now have an unbreakable bond, no one can separate us as we share blood ties. That is why I knew that you needed blood; I could feel you calling me, asking me for it, though you did not know that you were doing it" Larten said to me.**

"**Oh right, is that why you came to me? Or were you coming anyway?" I asked.**

"**I promised you that I would come so I did, I knew you had a high blood lust so I gave you a feed as any responsible vampire should do" Larten said to me.**

"**That is fine I was just curious that is all" I responded. **

**I went and I explored the rest of the tavern, it was quite nice, it looked like a public house from the 1640's in style but it had a flat screen television, a dart board, a pool table and a skittle alley. The television was showing the sport round up. I guess it was there for the benefit of humans and twenty first century vampires who liked to be in touch with the world and its technology. **

**I had a great night out and when we were leaving who should turn up but Vanez Blaine and his three friends so we all stayed for a pint and a game of darts. **

**When I arrived back home it was only ten pm so I was able to get into bed and curl up with Larten for a while before I had to go to sleep. Larten took off his clothes and got into bed beside me, he held me and he kissed me and we were soon having a little bit of fun but not much, he touched me and I kissed him, then we curled up and I went to sleep but Larten stayed up and kept watch in case anything suspicious happened but everything was fine.**

**I woke up the next day with Larten gone but he had left me his cloak, it was still wrapped around me and the duvet cover was on the floor. The pillows too were on the floor and then I remembered that Larten had took them off of the bed so that my bed was more vampiric, vampires did not normally sleep with covers but instead prefer to curl up to each other and use their own clothing to keep warm. **

**I folded up Larten's cloak and I put it into my wardrobe, I folded it exactly how he did it and I made my bed. I then got up and I went off to school. It was my last day at school so I made the most of it and I said goodbye to all of my friends. I knew that I would never see them again after today so I gave them all a gift of a bar of chocolate. It didn't look strange because it was the last day of term before the summer holidays.**

**Chapter 6 the Start of Something Vampiric **

**I got home that day after school to find a note on the table that said my parents had gone to dinner and could I pick up my brother from our cousin's place down the street at eight pm.**

**I drunk the potion that Larten had told me to drink after my brother was at home playing on the computer. It tasted vile but it started to work within a few hours, I felt my whole body tingle and my mind was blank, I lay down and waited to go into a death like stillness, all my muscles were stiff as though rigamortis had set in and my heartbeat slowed to three beats a minute which is virtually undetectable. **

**Larten came for me at midnight and as agreed he threw me out of my bedroom window to make it look like I had fallen by accident so that there would not be any suspicions cast on my faked death, I had one of those big, old fashioned windows that slid upwards and it opened wide enough to fall from if you were not careful or if you leant out of it too far to look down onto the street. **

**The next few days were very strange, I was put into a black body bag and carted off to the mortuary in an ambulance, the mortician signed my death certificate as "accidental death by falling" and then I was taken to the funeral home and placed into my rather basic wooden coffin, I was a bit upset that my parents had opted for the budget package but it was only temporary-not that they knew that!**

**It was strange being a guest at my own funeral, I could hear the sobs and the general muffled crying of my mother, I felt awful but at least they played my favourite music and they buried me with my games console, they knew how much I loved playing it. I had a lot of flowers as well, even from people I did not know which was nice, the worst part was when they dropped my coffin in the grave rather than lowering it in, then I heard the thud of earth being dropped on the top of it-I was being buried alive and how strange it was!**

**Then all was silent and I had to task of waiting for Larten to come and dig me up and take me back to our hayloft home before we moved on to the mountains and then we would sit in the grand hall and listen to the Vampire Council who met once every twelve years to check who was alive, who was dead and then they would discuss any problems or any upcoming events or battles and then they would vote on the best course of action. **

**Scrape, scrape, scrape. I listened intently and then it came again, scrape, scrape, scrape, I realised that Larten was unearthing me and soon I would be free from the ground. BANG! My coffin lid had been lifted up and flung somewhere and there was Larten looking down at me, I really had been six feet under! **

"**What a lot of noise, did you have to make a racket like that? We do not want to draw attention to ourselves" I said.**

"**I had to rip the lid off, it was nailed on but I did not expect it to be that loud. It is normally less tight than that, your parents did not want you escaping" Larten laughed.**

"**Very funny, now get me out of this hole; death is sad it is not meant to be a humorous occasion" I said then I continued "I have just lost everything, my home, my family, my friends all sacrificed for you and this new life or should I say new death?" I asked.**

"**No, new life as you were never really dead, now up we go, you should walk the stiffness out of your legs whilst I fill in the hole" Larten said as he scooped me out of the hole and held me so tight that the life was being squeezed out of me. **

"**Um, you are crushing m-, me" I gasped. **

"**Sorry dear, just happy to hold you close to me again. I did not mean to crush you" Larten said as he let me walk off the stiffness in my legs and arms. It felt so good to be in the open air, the stale air had got to me, lucky I can hold my breath for a long time, any other human would have suffocated as I was in there for what seemed like twelve hours but it may have been less than that. **

**I was glad to get back to the hay loft, I needed a rest and some food, there probably had been a wake but of course I had not been there so I got none of the food and none of the drink and I** **needed blood, I was gagging for a drink of that ruby red liquid which Larten referred to as red mercury though why I do not know. **

"**What is for dinner? I am absolutely gagging for a meal and a feed" I asked.**

"**Spit roasted partridge with stock and there is blood in that cupboard, its fresh as I hunted before I dug you out as I knew that you would crave it" Larten replied.**

**I opened the cupboard and sure enough there was blood, a big flask full that was still warm. I drained it in seconds now my powers had fully kicked in and I felt so much better. Soon after that I was tucking in to spit roasted partridge and a rich stock that went great with bread. I loved it, there was nothing left over except the carcass which we put out for the fox. We had a fox that came every couple of nights for its dinner, we left it the bones and any leftovers so that they would not go to waste, we both disapproved of wasting food, even if was only bones.**

**I soon settled back into my life as a vampiress, I was glad that I had not been underground for long, I was scared of being discovered, I was lucky that Larten was an expert grave digger and filler, it looked the same as it did before I had been dug up, no one would have known that the grave was empty unless somebody had dug down and found the empty coffin, we made sure that it looked perfect before we left. **

**I was looking forward to travelling up to the mountains wherever they were, Larten had warned me about the long, arduous and often treacherous journey ahead of me and him, Larten had made the journey before but he had not stepped foot at the council for fifty years, I was absolutely petrified but I knew that it was my duty and my place to present myself to the Clan so that I could be judged as to whether I was going to be a vampiress of good standing or not. **

**The Trials of Death intrigued me also, Larten had told me about them but he did not want me to take them, he was scared of me dying or worse failing and then being executed as was the punishment for failing the Trials of Death. **

**Chapter 7 the Journey Begins**

**We decided to leave in three night's time, as then it would be a full moon and we could see more of our surroundings. I packed up a few essentials but for the most part we had to survive on what we found, it was part of the test. We had to go barefoot which was the worst part but my super toughened skin could take the punishment, anyway we would be going through fields mostly and grass is quite nice to walk on barefoot. **

**I packed up a lantern for each of us, and a torch, some basic food that would keep and our fold away camping pots. The rest we locked away in a safe so that it would not be stolen, I did wrap up warm, it was nearing winter and I had no desire of freezing to death, though Larten acted like a personal hot water bottle and kept me warm for the most part when we were sleeping in the hayloft.**

**We were ready to leave in advance in case of a sudden weather change, but lucky for us it stayed clear and the moon shone like a huge, round beacon that we could use to light our way and tell us where to go. **

**We caught a late train to our first stopover destination as it was quicker and it gave us a chance to sleep in safety. I loved going on trains, you can really stretch out in the First Class carriages. We had a dining cart as well which was great. Larten and I were the only ones on the train in First Class so we made the most of it, we curled up in one of the sleeping compartments and we stayed there until we had to change to another train.**

**I thought it was so good of Larten to travel like this, we were supposed to be walking but that would come later, it is the twenty first century after all and the train is meant for everybody human or vampire. **

**We got off in London; we then changed to the Euro star so that we could go to France to catch the Orient Express where we would begin the journey properly after we arrived at our new destination though I didn't know where that was. **

**I was surprised that Larten wanted to travel by train, neither one of us had a passport but being vampires we can sneak aboard and hide where nobody would see us, using our superior speed we could quite easily flit aboard and stay well hidden in the baggage compartments. **

**The Euro Star was a nice, pleasant journey. We went in the daylight as it was more conventional but we had the curtains in our compartment closed. I liked the fact that we could spend time together like this; one of the waitresses came round with the dining cart so we had a good meal, a top notch lunch in fact and it was included in the ticket price so it was a good deal. **

**The waitress looked at us a bit strangely to start with, but when we explained that we were tourists on our holidays she gave us a tour brochure and recommended a couple of great sights to visit, we thanked her and then she left to serve the other customers, oddly enough nobody checked to see if we had a passport they only checked our tickets so we were quite fortunate. **

**I had such a good time travelling, I enjoyed it a lot. I noticed that Larten and I had not been very close since we left the hay loft. I wondered why, I was dying to feed again and I was getting bored of not having any proper closeness with Larten so I asked him outright.**

"**Hey, um we have not done anything for ages; I mean that we have not really been too close recently. I am dying to feed again, when is our next hunting trip?"**

"**Well we can hunt later on, this train is full of blood, I thought that you would have had a feed already, as for the other thing I have had other things on my mind" Larten replied.**

"**Like what? I thought that I was important to you, I did not wish to feed alone in case I do it wrong, and as for us being together when was the last time you held me or kissed me?" I responded in an aggravated tone.**

"**Well I hold you every time we sleep, the other stuff is lax because I have been distracted, I will make it up to you though, I have something for you and I will break you in later if you want me to" Larten said as he handed me a wooden box that looked expensive.**

**I opened the box and inside was some kind of jewellery; it looked like some kind of brooch and a necklace. **

"**They are lovely, what are they? If you could break me in later that would be fine because you hold me at night so it cannot be much different can it?" I asked**

"**I have given you a brooch with my crest on it and a diamond necklace and as for breaking you in of course I will do it later for you I was waiting for you to ask me. All vampiresses have some kind of jewellery, it is tradition, and you deserve the best so I bought you the best" Larten explained as he put it on me, the brooch was used as a cloak pin so that my cloak would stay in place, before it was moving and slipping out of place which was both annoying and uncomfortable. I felt like a real vampiress now, I also felt very special, the diamonds in my necklace were worth a lot of money, it was not really a necklace but more of a band that fixed around my neck, it had three rows of diamonds set into platinum and a fastener at the back.**

**I knew that it must have cost at least twelve thousand pounds but I loved it. I wanted to know how Larten paid but it was rude to ask so I refrained from doing so. The brooch was also very nice; the pattern on it was a shield with lots of little decorative marks. It was too small to see the actual crest on it but I could make out an inscription that had Larten's name in it.**

**I was a bit worried that it was not safe to have such valuable pieces of jewellery on my person whilst I was travelling so I either had to hide them or find somewhere secure to store them. I did not really have a solution so I asked Larten what to do.**

"**You can put them in my safe deposit box; no one will get at it. I am a master of hiding things" Larten said.**

"**Oh right I did not know that you had one, that sounds like a good solution" I said in reply.**

**For some strange reason I looked at the scars on my fingers, they were tiny and hard to see but my enhanced sight made them visible. **

**I then sat down next to Larten who put his arm around me and pulled me close to him, soon I could feel his skin on my skin as he had linked up his hand to mine. **

**I turned to face him and to my surprise Larten lifted me up onto his lap and I wrapped my legs around his waist, then we kissed, it felt different than before, more energised and how I had missed it, it had been a long time since this had happened last and the best thing was being held and caressed by the guy that I loved, although I never admitted to it, it was obvious.**

**We stayed like this for ages; it was just us in our compartment so we had no one to disturb our vampiric time together. We started to get a bit more in to it. I could really feel every touch, every breath, every movement and that was what I had missed most. **

**We got under the covers that we had and I stripped down to my underwear, Larten ripped my underwear off of me which was a surprise but it felt good. What felt even better was when Larten went down between my legs and he let me feel him giving me a great sensation on my sensitive spot by licking it. **

**Then when he thought that I was ready he slipped inside me and he pulsed his manhood inside me for the first time. It hurt like hell but it had to be done and Larten seemed to know what he was doing. I trusted him to do it properly and when the pain had gone I felt a different sensation. This feeling was intense and it felt like my whole body was tingling, then it got better and it hit me. I could not control this sensation and I screamed out for more as it felt so good. I had waves of pleasure going through me and that were caused by Larten because he came inside me. **

**When we stopped it had only been thirty minutes but it felt a lot longer as we had done so much. **

"**I enjoyed that although it hurt like hell to start with. It felt good at the end though" I said. **

"**It will get better for you believe me. It hurt this time as it was your first experience but the next time will be different as it should not hurt as much. I will take it slowly with you until you are used to sex because I have no intention of hurting you" Larten replied.**

"**I enjoyed it at the end when that tingling sensation built up inside me. That felt good" I replied.**

"**That was because I made you come. The orgasm is always the best part of sex and as you get used to it and we start doing more moves it will get even better. Trust me I am an expert" Larten replied.**

"**Fair enough Larten I trust you. That has made me want to hunt because it has used a lot of my energy I need blood now" I said.**

"**Alright Sarah we will go and feed but we have to clean this up first" Larten said as he looked down at the blood stained and slashed sheets on the bed.**

"**It is a bit embarrassing and I am still bleeding Larten" I said.**

"**I will sort it out. You are bleeding quite badly, I did not expect it to be this much though" Larten replied.**

"**What can you do? I am quite sore and it hurts still" I asked.**

"**I can try and stop the bleeding but that is all. My spit heals wounds and stops bleeding. Please try not to get too excited this time" Larten said as he helped me to stand up. Larten knelt down and he had me standing over him as he caught the blood in his mouth and he licked me to try and stop the bleeding. It felt better afterwards and as a result the pain was not as bad. **

"**How is that now my dear?" Larten asked me.**

"**A lot better thank you. The bleeding has stopped I think but it still hurts a bit" I said.**

"**It will do my dear but that will settle down in a few hours. As a vampiress you have accelerated healing powers" Larten explained.**

"**What did you do to me anyway?" I asked.**

"**We had sex for the first time. I penetrated you and I came inside you and that is what made you come too" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right so I am not a virgin any longer. I enjoyed the end when I came screaming. I had heard about it but I never thought that it was actually possible to make a girl feel like that" I said.**

"**Believe me that was just a small taste of what you could feel and there are things that I can do to you that will make you beg me for more as it will be that good" Larten said.**

"**That sounds like fun" I said.**

"**Believe me it will be fun for us both when I am on top form" Larten said.**

**We cleaned up our compartment and then we went to hunt. The Euro Star train had an overnight stopover that was not scheduled because it broke down so we got off and we went through the fields and found a decent meal. **

**We feasted with a pair of campers who had been fishing and then we had a feed on the train when we got back. **

**I did not like the idea of feeding on the passengers but we had no choice, however Larten gave me my blood in a bottle and I had no idea who it had come from which made me feel not so guilty. **

**I hated feeding actively as in feeding off of a person's vein but I did not mind feeding passively which means not feeding from a person but rather drinking blood from a vat or from a flask instead. **

**When we returned to our compartment we were both tired and full, I had fed well and the fish that the campers had given us was fresh, we had a whole trout each and a few smaller fish that were fried in batter, the trout was roasted on an open fire in a metal tin with butter and herbs. **

**Being in the company of humans at the time we ate normally and not vampire style but none the less the food was great. **

"**Larten, where are we going after we get off of the Euro Star? This route you are taking is rather strange, we are in France now but what comes next?" I asked.**

"**Well after we go aboard the Orient Express we will travel on it for a week and then we will go on foot to the mountains and there we will meet with other Clan members then we will head to the Council. I cannot tell you what country yet in case spies or enemies are listening in; it is all one big top secret you see" Larten explained.**

"**So it is like James Bond but vampiric?" I whispered.**

"**Yes, I met Ian Fleming once, he was a lovely man" Larten told me.**

"**Oh right, lucky you, he died before I was even an egg cell" I replied.**

"**Yes it was 1944 when I was in America serving in the war, I did not want to but for conformity I joined up and served as a soldier in one of the tank regiments" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right, I am glad you made a contribution, I guess rationing was easy for you" I answered.**

"**Well I did get quite a lot of food, I could hunt you see, I made snares and all kinds of traps to catch things to eat. I even taught some of my fellow soldiers how to hunt and how to make bombs out of everyday objects" **

**Larten continued then I asked**

"**So did you play a big part? What rank were you?" **

"**I was a Lieutenant Commander but the war ended before I got promoted further, then I spent the next fifty years with the circus travelling and I went all over the world, then I met up with a few friends and then after that I met you, so that is it really" Larten explained. **

"**Sounds like an interesting life, I hope we get to travel the world. I would love to go on a cruise or to one of those holiday resorts, not a sunny one though" I laughed.**

"**We would burn to death if we went anywhere warm, Finland is ok and Iceland is quite a good haven for us, Sweden is not bad but Russia is the best place to go. We will go there I swear to you and we will live like the Royals do." Larten replied. **

**Larten then held me and he whispered something very naughty in my ear which made me get into a play fight with him, being vampires it was a lot rougher than a human play fight but it showed Larten that I was no push over.**

"**Be more polite next time" I said as I sat on Larten's lap after it was over.**

"**I am sorry I offended you I just think that you would enjoy that" Larten replied.**

"**Maybe but do not be so crude, it is not very nice and remember that I have no experience so you will have to be gentle with me" I said then I kissed him to show that there were no hard feelings between us. **

**We finally got underway, the Euro Star left four hours late so we missed our connection with the Orient Express, we had hoped to make the overnight crossing but we couldn't so we took the early morning train instead, we had to hide from this point on as if we were discovered without passports and visas we would be in deep trouble!**

**Chapter 8 the Disaster on the Orient Express**

**Things started off OK. We hopped aboard the train and took up a position in the baggage compartment. The first train had been boarded in the UK and we were lucky to get on it and stay on it but this was a very busy train with a lot of security personnel it was nothing like the Euro Star. **

**People were everywhere on the Orient Express and so was their luggage, we could hardly move as there was so little room in the baggage compartment where we had to hide. I sat on top of a wooden box and Larten moved a few things so that he could sit down also. It was a tight squeeze. **

**We were filthy and we had no clean clothing, in true vampire style we raided the kitchen carriage and grabbed enough food from the startled chefs to live on until we got off the train. **

**Taking food from the kitchens was not difficult, our speed made it seem like things were disappearing in a blur, it looked confusing, and one chef thought it was a ghost of a train passenger from the past but actually it was me darting in and out of the carriage until we had got enough food. **

**We waited until everyone was asleep before we raided the bar, we opened up the fridge and took out enough wine and ale to keep us going and I also grabbed a bottle of my favourite tipple which was vodka for good measure. **

**I did not mind being stuck in the baggage compartment, we used a cargo net as a hammock and we slept in that suspended off of the ground where there was more space. It was fun to sleep in the hammock because we could rock from side to side and it was relaxing to curl up and sleep in mid air with Larten's cloak draped over us both whilst we made out. **

**With my supreme balance I was able to perform a few tricks using the other cargo hoists; I could vault up them, swing from them and hang off of them or I could climb to the top and sit on a big wooden cargo box and poke my head out of the skylight. **

**One evening I poked my head out of the skylight and I saw the full moon. Whether it was my enhanced night vision or the angle I did not know but the moon looked huge and all of the stars looked much more than little white dots in the sky. It was the best night sky that I had seen since I had looked through my father's telescope all those long months ago. **

**Looking at the sunsets was also great, all of the colours seemed to come alive and I could really see every detail that a human would have missed. **

**The train came to a sudden halt and I was jerked forward, had I not been quick enough to grab the net I would have fallen a long way down.**

"**Maybe there is something on the tracks, or someone. It is not like a train to suddenly stop like that at the speed it was going, if it was a station they slow down gradually" Larten said.**

"**Should we investigate do you think?" I asked.**

"**No, it would give us away; it is probably a beer bottle or a suicidal human, nothing to fear my love" Larten said. **

"**Very well, can you pass me up some food? I am starving. Oh and give me that bottle down there please" I asked.**

"**Come down and get it, if you want it, you are my assistant not the other way around" Larten exclaimed.**

"**Ok then babe, watch out below" I said as I vaulted across onto a hoisted net and then I climbed down it until I could reach a rope which touched the ground. **

**I grabbed a couple of bread rolls and the bottle which contained my secret supply of milk and blood mixed up into some kind of milkshake. **

**I then vaulted back up into the hammock and ate well; I loved being suspended in the air. I hung upside down to eat; it was a trick that I had learned.**

"**Doing that you look like an ape, can you not eat like a lady?" Larten said.**

"**Yes but I like it this way; I am just practising my skills. You know how much I love to climb and explore" I responded.**

"**Yes I do but there is no need to do it all the time, if you are bored we can play cards. I brought a pack with me" Larten told me.**

"**Very well, let us play cribbage, I have a fold away board in my back pack" I replied as I effortlessly climbed back down to the ground. **

**We played cards and for a while it was cool; everything was fine until we heard something smash. The next thing I knew was that there seemed to be a lot of noise and screaming in the carriages. I went to investigate and that was my undoing…**

**I walked out of the baggage compartment to see some strange looking guys in rough clothing holding some humans hostage. **

"**What is going on? Who are you and what do you want?" I asked.**

"**We want the vampire girl and her mate to come with us." The guy replied. **

"**Right then, firstly there are no vampires you idiot and secondly if there were they would not go anywhere with you." I replied annoyed and scared for the humans' safety. **

**Just then Larten arrived and he stood behind me. **

"**So we meet again Damon, it has been years since we fought last and I beat you fair and square although I should have killed you." Larten said. **

"**Larten Crepsley well I never. Still taking human mates or is she another one of your poor, unfortunate mistakes?" Damon asked.**

"**I am Sarah, I am twenty one and I chose to be with Larten. What is all this about? Are you vampaneze or something?" I asked.**

"**Yes, I am vampaneze, the enemy of all vampires and the killer of several humans because they have to die in order to feed my blood lust."**

"**Let the humans go and I will come with you. Call it a trade if you like." I said bravely; then Larten cut in and he said;**

"**No Sarah, they will kill you for sure. Let me go with them I can fight, I can do things which you cannot so let me go." **

"**No, I want your mate; she is such a pretty thing." Damon said, then he grabbed hold of me and he put a knife to my throat before he jumped out of the smashed carriage window. Then he flitted somewhere whilst keeping a tight grip on me.**

**I was scared witless, I had just been abducted by a vampaneze. I thought that I was going to die; it was terrifying. Damon took me to a deserted town where he slipped into a back alley and then he went with me down a man hole cover into the slimy, putrid smelling, wet and cold sewers where rats were abundant and they were everywhere; you could not take a step without nearly tripping on one. I hated it in the sewer as anybody would but the rats did not bother me. **

**To my surprise Damon had turned a disused pipe into some kind of accommodation; he had set up home in there and it was not as bad as I had imagined however for all it is worth it did not stop the smell of sewage wafting in from all sides. **

**The smell could have overpowered a regular human so my enhanced sense of smell made it unbearable but after a while I got used to it; I just breathed through my mouth instead of my nose. **

"**In here my lovely this is where you stay" Damon said as he pointed to an adjoining tunnel. It was not too bad but I so missed my hayloft. **

"**Very well, how long am I here for? Only I cannot abide the smell of sewage" I asked.**

"**You stay until your ransom is paid; Larten will pay up if he loves you and if he doesn't well that is too bad for both of you because I will kill him and then kill you. Now shut up and let me think" Damon said; he sounded annoyed. **

**I sat down on the rough stool that had been provided for me and I cried; I missed Larten and to be away from him with my life at risk was awful. I hated it; every second without him seemed to take much longer to pass than normal. **

"**You, come here. You may wash and feed if you wish." Damon barked at me. I knew better than to refuse that offer. I washed using a bottle of water and a piece of material and I fed on a corpse that Damon had finished with; the blood was stale but it had not yet turned sour, sour blood is poisonous to vampires and vampaneze alike. **

"**Can I have some clean clothes please? These ones are filthy and they have holes in" I asked tentatively.**

"**Um, well I do not have much in the way of clothing but I may have something. Your request is reasonable enough. Wait here" Damon replied as he vanished down the tunnel. He returned about twenty minutes later with a clean t shirt and a pair of women's jeans, some clean underwear, socks and welly boots. **

"**Here, I hope they fit you" Damon said as he left me to change. **

"**Thank you Sir. The clothes fit me except the boots are a little big. They are fine and comfortable though" I said.**

"**Don't call me Sir; just call me Damon, everyone else does. You will be treated fairly but do not anger me or I may turn nasty. I want you to keep this place spotless and do not bother me unless it is necessary. Is that understood?" Damon said.**

"**Yes" I replied then I went back to my tunnel prison and fell asleep on the pile of blankets that I had made a bed out of; I only dreamed of one thing and that was to be reunited with Larten and to have him hold me once more. **

**The next time I awoke I saw Damon standing over me with a mop and a bucket. I guessed what he wanted me to do so I just got on with it. I did not even ask about breakfast I just worked until the place was clean; the slime levels were at their highest but never the less I got it off and by doing so the smell seemed to go a little. **

"**Not bad, not bad. I see you have worked hard. The smell is not as bad either and you got rid of the slime. I think you have earned this" Damon said and he put a small bowl on the floor.**

"**Thanks, I hope you are pleased with my work so far" I replied. I then sat down and ate the food in the bowl; it was a mixture of cereal with a little milk and a few slices of banana. **

"**Yum that is good stuff I miss human food" I said.**

"**I am glad you liked it; I am not really familiar with human food or vampire diets but I know that cereal is good for energy and bananas are just great" Damon said and then he continued;**

"**Lunch is in four hours, I want you to polish my furniture and could you also try and get rid of the rats? I like them but there are too many. Do not kill them; just get them to go into another tunnel"**

"**Very well I will do my best for you." I said and at that point Damon left and I got on with the tasks in hand.**

**Moving the rats was hard; they scurried everywhere but eventually they followed me into another part of the sewer annex where they were secured. They could go as they pleased but not into Damon's quarters. I polished all of the furniture using bees wax and a cloth. I also did a bit of painting to keep the place looking clean. If I had to be here then I figured that I should make the best of it. **

"**Lunch time, come here" Damon called.**

"**I am just coming" I replied. **

**Damon was sitting at his table and he had set it for me as well. I sat down and I was given a pot of what looked like rabbit stew, it was warm and meaty.**

"**Great stew, I am happy that I made it" Damon said.**

"**Yes, it is good food. You should have been a chef as you have talent" I replied.**

"**Thanks, no one has said that but it is true. I do not regret my choices in life but I regret not making better ones" Damon said.**

"**For a vampaneze you are a nice one, I thought that you were all evil but you are not, you are a good one. I miss Larten though" I said.**

"**Well Larten was wise enough to pay up so you will be free soon enough" Damon said then he added**

"**That is if you do all of your work here and don't complain"**

"**Very well, I just miss him so much I cannot wait to be with him again" I said. **

"**Why did you abduct me in the first place if you are going to let me go so soon? Would it not make your clan look weak to take me and then let me live? Although I am grateful I am thinking about you" I said interested in Damon's reply.**

"**You have a good point there missy but I am not like them, I needed money desperately so I had no other options. I knew that Larten would pay and why should I harm you? You have done nothing to me other than your blood is different to mine" Damon replied.**

"**Larten will surely kill you though. He will not let a vampaneze live at the best of times but abducting his mate is going to really piss him off" I explained but Damon did not reply; instead he just sat down and wrote a letter. I kept quiet out of respect but I knew that he was scared witless. **

"**Please give this to Larten when you see him again and can you post this for me as well?" Damon asked.**

"**Yes certainly, I will not ask you what it contains" I replied.**

"**This letter is to Larten apologising for my shameful conduct and this one is to my lawyer, it is my last will and testament" Damon responded; then he vanished in a blur. **

**I was counting down the hours until I would be with Larten again. I could not bear it; it was so hard because he was on my mind all of the time. I tried to reach him telepathically but it was to no avail as my mind was not strong enough. I knew that he was tracking me down; I could sense him getting closer to me. **

**Then about four hours later Damon returned in a blur and a few moments later another bigger blur came into focus; it was a red blur and that meant only one thing…Larten!**

**I leapt up and almost fell down again as I had moved so fast but I ran towards the blur and as I got closer the blur came into focus and then with an almighty crash I ran straight into Larten's arms; the force of which nearly made us both topple over onto the ground and on top of each other but luckily Larten had scooped me up with such speed that we didn't topple over in fact we stopped still. **

**Larten spun me around and held me so tight it was like being squeezed; it is lucky that my ribs were so strong! Then Larten put me down and he held me close to him from behind so his arms were around my waist basically. **

"**I have missed you so badly it has been unbearable" I said as I clutched Larten's hands tightly, even for a vampiress. **

"**I know but the price was so high, I had no choice but to give up all of our savings. We are now destitute" Larten said.**

"**Money comes and goes but you cannot put a price on love" I replied as I kissed Larten for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. I was still a lot shorter than him so I had to vault up into the air in order to reach him. Sometimes if I was feeling really vampish I would do a hand stand on his shoulders and kiss him that way as it was more entertaining. It was not hard with my balance but was not recommended for humans as they do not have the strength or the grip to hold on or the balance to be able to handstand on someone's shoulders. **

**After we had kissed Larten handed over the money and we flit out of the tunnel. I was glad to be out in the fresh air but Larten just wanted to get me as far away from there as possible. **

**We caught a night bus to our next destination and we travelled on to a city of bright lights and traffic. I had missed this twenty first century life; I had missed electric and fast food joints. **

**Larten took me down a deserted alley where he vaulted up a pipe onto a balcony. I followed him and I waited for him to break into the balcony doors so that we could take up residence in the condemned hotel. It had a pest control notice on the door so we expected rats and what we got were cockroaches instead! We got out of there as it was not what we wanted.**

"**Can we not stay in a proper hotel with proper facilities? I need a wash and a change of clothes." I asked.**

"**We have no money, how would we pay the bill?" Larten said.**

"**I have a credit card that I keep for emergencies. I have not used it as I am supposed to be dead but my parents did not know I had it so the account may still be active" I said.**

"**Well it is not the vampire way but on this occasion we have to improvise. I guess we can try it as it is not against vampire law" Larten said.**

"**Ok then where do you wish to stay?" I asked.**

"**I think somewhere with a suite, a shower and room service" Larten replied. **

"**Well there is the City Grand Hotel down that road and there is the Hilton about a ten minute flit away. Or we could try the bed and breakfast" I explained.**

"**The City Grand Hotel sounds great. I think it is four stars but let us both go and find out" Larten said as we walked around the corner and toward the big neon sign that had the hotel name on it. **

**Chapter 9 the City Grand Hotel**

**We arrived in the hotel lobby and we walked up to the man on the desk.**

"**My husband and I would like an en suite room for a week please." I said.**

"**What name is it please?" the man asked.**

"**It is Mr and Mrs Crepsley" I said.**

"**Ok, do you have a reservation?" the man asked.**

"**No, we did not think to book it. Sorry" I replied.**

"**That is not a problem, it is ninety five pounds a night excluding VAT but you get dinner included" The guy explained.**

"**That is fine, here is my card. You can put it all on that" I said as I handed over my bank credit card. **

"**That has gone through, here is your receipt. Follow me please to room number 212." The guy said and we left the lobby and we went up to room number 212 on the third floor. **

**We walked in to room 212 and it was huge. We had a balcony, an en suite bathroom and a lounge type area and the best thing of all was the real four poster bed with the mini bar right next to it.**

**The guy left us to it and as soon as he had gone I took off my filthy clothes and put them in the bath to soak whilst I had a shower. I had missed this so much. I gave my clothes a good scrub and then I dried them out by the radiator. Larten did the same and then he called down to room service for a dinner tray for us both. I was ravenous as neither of us had eaten much and I had not eaten since before I had got away from Damon's sewers. **

**Whilst Larten slept the next morning I went down to breakfast and then I went shopping for clothing. We only had limited items remaining and we were still miles away from the mountain. **

**Still keeping with tradition I bought basic items and I made sure that we had only what we needed and no more. I got back to the hotel around two pm to find that Larten was not in the room. I went downstairs and he was in the indoor swimming pool with a couple of other guests and a few kids. **

**Not wanting to miss out I got in as well and I swam a few lengths before I started playing water polo with a few teens that were my age. We had to give the impression of being normal guests so as not to arouse anyone's suspicions. **

**I went to the gymnasium also. I wanted to do a bit of training as I was weak by vampire standards. I lifted a few weights and I ran on the treadmill to get my muscle tone up. It was so much fun and I actually felt free for the first time in ages. Although I loved Larten dearly I did need to be myself sometimes. I missed my human life so much but I never admitted it. By staying in the hotel it gave me the opportunity to be normal almost and I did not have to worry about anything vampish for once. **

**The hotel was so relaxing and it was just what we needed before we finally made our journey to the mountains. I made full use of the complimentary gifts and room facilities because it was a change from cargo holds and haylofts; although I did love my hayloft home this hotel was so much better and I did not have to hunt for food either! **

**Larten and I went downstairs for dinner in the evening. The hotel had provided some entertainment so we went to keep up appearances. The entertainment was not bad either; the hotel had laid on a buffet and a jazz band then later on a DJ did a set and as it was all modern stuff I loved it. I had missed not listening to modern music and dancing. **

**Larten stayed in his seat to start with but I persuaded him to dance as everyone else was; we did look like an odd couple but nobody questioned us and if anybody asked I said that we were newlyweds on our honeymoon. **

**At the end of the DJ's set there was a general disco and we stayed for that. Afterwards we went to the bar and we spent a load of money that we did not really have. We did not care though; it was fun to party once in a while. **

**I got back into my suite at three am. Everyone else had gone to bed hours before hand but my biological clock told me to stay awake as I was nocturnal after all. **

**Also staying up all night gave us an excuse to sleep in the next day because people would think that we were tired after being up all night so it worked out quite nicely.**

**Larten and I slept in late the next day as we were exhausted. It was also a scorching hot day outside which is of course no good at all. I did get up but not until the afternoon and then I went straight into the gymnasium and then I went to put my name down on the list for a city tour later on that day. It sounded really fun to tour the city like a normal person in order to sightsee and take some photos on my phone which I had bought with me. **

**I then went back to bed as I was pretty tired but Larten was not there. I searched for him but he was nowhere to be found and then my phone went off, it was a text message badly spelt from Larten saying that he had flit to go for a feed and that he would bring me something back with him. It was still quite sunny outside but I guessed that Larten would have flit to someone's house to feed and then he would flit back before the sun could really do any damage to him. **

**Larten was impulsive but he was also wise so I trusted him like I had never trusted anyone before. I knew that he would never put himself or me in deliberate danger so I was ok with him going off to feed without me. **

**When he returned it was dinner time in the hotel. We of course went down to dinner as did everybody else. The dining room was large and open planned, there were all sorts of odd ornaments and portraits on the walls. Larten said to me that he recognised some of them but the others were a complete mystery to him. **

**Dinner was one of those buffets where you take a plate then go up and help yourself to whatever you fancy. I really loved having this amount of freedom and as for feeding Larten sorted that out no problem. We had a mini bar in our suite with a fridge so we used that to store our fresh blood in until we consumed it and nobody knew the difference because the bottle was labelled "vodka and cranberry" **

**Soon enough the week was over and we had to depart for the mountains which we did after dinner. We of course had to wait for the sun to set before we could move on to our real trek. **

**We packed our bags and we were soon on our way. I followed Larten to the foot of a hillside and then we had to go up and over it to get onto the track that would take us to the council. **

**It was summer but for some reason the path that we were on had remnants of snow on it. I thought that it was something to do with how high up we were above sea level. It was rather cold and the ground was rocky and uneven. Some of the rocks had ice on them which was hard to see. We knew that if a rock was dull it was ok but if it shined then it was covered in ice. **

**We walked for miles all through the night and for all that walking we could still see the town in the distance although our eyesight was enhanced. I do not think that a human could see as far as us. **

"**Larten how far do we have to go until we find a place to rest?" I asked as we walked.**

"**There is a cave about six miles from here. We can rest there until the sun has set again" Larten replied. **

"**Ok then is there any food in your pack? I have had all of mine. I did not pack much to start with" I asked.**

"**Sorry honey I have nothing but the cave is near a wood. We should be able to catch a rabbit or two in there" Larten responded. **

"**Oh right. Let us go" I said and we continued dodging the icy rocks and making our way to the cave. **

**I was excited because I had not been on a real adventure like this before. I did miss my friends but I had new vampire friends now and the place where we were going sounded great however I did miss my cosy hotel suite. **

**I was pretty cold that I could cope with but worse was to come…**

**Chapter 10 the Bear Attack**

**Larten and I had been walking for hours but eventually we arrived at the cave where we would rest. The cave had been hand carved out of the rock by vampires of old so it was in a good location. There was a wood full of animals that we could eat and a stream that had fresh spring water flowing through it; it was nothing like the pretend bottled stuff you get in the shops this was the real thing. **

"**I will make the bed up for us, could you go and fill up our flasks please? Go down the bottom by the pool as the water is better there and its deep enough to wash in." Larten asked.**

"**Yes alright. I will not be long but a wash sounds good. Anyway it is nice to swim." I said as I went back down the hillside and around the corner to the pool of water at the base of the stream. **

**The water was icy cold but refreshing and I am sure that the minerals in it would do my skin good. I submerged my head into the pool and I gave my hair a jolly good wash with some of Larten's shampoo mix which was made of a herb called soapwort. It was quite sweet smelling and it was good for insect repellent as well. Then I rubbed some fresh soapwort on my skin to use as a shower gel and I used a piece of cloth as a flannel. This was how vampires washed and the best thing about it was that it was 100% natural and harmless to the environment. I dried myself off with the one luxury I had which was a soft hotel towel which I had admittedly swiped from the room but they had hundreds anyway. I filled up one of the flasks and I was just about to fill up the other one when out of nowhere I heard a very loud growl. I turned around to see an enormous eight feet tall bear towering over me. The bear was standing on its hind legs and it looked angry. I quickly darted around it but it moved just as quick as I did and it was rabid. It had foam dripping from its mouth all over the rocks where it was standing. It also had blood on its fur so I knew that it had either killed or eaten or both. **

**I got a strong whiff of vampaneze which made me panic even more but right now getting away from the bear was my main concern. I had hoped that my superior speed would enable me to escape but unfortunately it did not help. The bear ran me down as fast as I was and it pounced upon me with tremendous force which knocked me to the ground and when it was on top of me it started to bite and claw at me. I screamed out loud and I begged that Larten had heard me for I thought that I was about to be devoured by this massive grizzly bear. I thought that I was about to die and what a way to die being eaten alive by a bear. **

**Just then with my last ounce of strength I saw a familiar flash of red coming towards me at such speed. It was Larten flitting to my aid before it was too late. I saw him leap up above the bear holding his sword and he landed on top of it and he killed it outright with a swing of his weapon. I think that I must have passed out from the blood loss because when I awoke I was in a dark place. I could not move and Larten was right beside me holding my hand. When my vision came back blurred though it was I saw that I was in the cave and I had been bandaged up. I felt extremely weak and I knew that I was lucky to be alive. **

"**How bad is it?" I asked.**

"**You have four broken ribs, you have a broken wrist and two of your vertebrae were smashed. You have lost a lot of blood but the vampire part of you has saved you. No human could withstand that. You cannot move but you will recover. It will take weeks to heal however." Larten replied. **

"**Ok, how can we make the trip to the council? I cannot go if I cannot move." I responded. **

"**I got you here did I not? I will carry you to the council. It is acceptable given the circumstances. The Generals will understand." Larten explained.**

"**Generals?" I enquired.**

"**Yes vampire Generals are in charge. They organise things and keep the Clan in order. I am an ex General. I gave it up to join the circus." Larten explained.**

"**Oh right, that sounds interesting." I said.**

"**It is but now you must rest as I have to finish patching you up." Larten said. **

**Larten got some ointment out of his pack and he began to apply it to the wound that was on my back. It stung like crazy but I could feel it working as my back did not hurt as badly as it had done once the stinging had gone away. The wound was not deep but it covered a large area. Larten applied a wound patch with herbs in it, he wrapped it around and then he tied it in place. Some of my wounds had to be stitched up but only to stop any infection getting in. They were washed out and cleaned first. Larten used a clean sewing needle and some normal thread to do it. It was done neatly but with speed. Afterwards I just lay on my side and slept. I was very weak. **

**It must have been a few hours later that I awoke to the smell of rabbit stew and bread. I was ravenous but of course I could not sit up so I had to eat lying on my side like a Roman. It was hard but I managed it by skewering meat with a metal kebab stick and eating it that way. I could move a little but because of my shattered vertebrae it was agony to move. I had to keep my back straight so that they grew back in the right position or it could have caused no end off trouble later on. **

**I knew that vampires healed quicker than humans so that gave me hope but the blood loss was the worst thing. Larten had no choice but to pump me full of his own blood to save me. It made me a fully blooded vampire which was not meant to be done until I had grown up a bit more but it saved my life so for that I was grateful. **

**A few nights went by and Larten did everything for me. He hunted and he kept me warm and full which was the main thing. I could feel myself healing up slowly. My movement was pretty stiff and it was returning at a snail's pace. **

**I felt so helpless because I was totally reliant on Larten. I loved him to bits but I am sure that he did not want to run around after me all night long however I would have done the same for him if our places had been reversed. I could not wait to start moving around again as laying still for hours is very boring but at least I could play cards which got rid of some of the boredom. **

**Larten put together a stretcher made out of wood and animal skin which had been washed and sewn together. I could not walk so Larten carried me on the stretcher with some help from a fellow vampire who was also going to the council. I did not mind being carried but I felt bad and what would the Clan say to my arrival in such an injured state? **

**Larten had been right when he had said about me taking weeks to heal. I was coated in ointments and bandages but it helped. Modern medicine would have been better but there were no shops or chemists for miles so we made do with what we had on us. I was lucky that Larten knew about remedies and herbal cures because I would have died for sure if he had not have had the knowledge which he possessed. **

**We eventually arrived at the entrance to where the council was being held and three guards met us at the entrance. They helped Larten carry me down to the medical wing where there were more supplies that could help me and a medic who knew more than Larten as he had been trained as a doctor. **

"**What on Earth happened? You look like you have been in a major fight and come off worst" The medic said to me when I entered the wing. **

"**A bear came at me from nowhere, it was rabid and it attacked me badly. Lucky Larten heard me and he was able to save me and kill the bear but I nearly died" I said.**

"**Well he has done a sterling job of patching you up; given those circumstances I doubt I could have done much more. I will change the dressings and I will remove your stitches, I can also put a cast on your broken wrist but the ribs will have to heal on their own. As for your shattered vertebrae I cannot do much except remove the bone fragments to let the new ones grow" The medic replied. **

"**Very well, I am grateful and very fortunate to have survived. I hope it does not affect me long term" I replied.**

"**If you rest and heal properly then you should be fine but stay out of the Halls of Sport and the gym until you are properly healed. I will help you to walk again when the vertebrae have grown back" The medic explained. **

**The medic then proceeded to remove the bone fragments from my back wound. It hurt but I was ok. The vampire blood had made me strong and able to cope. Then my stitches were removed and my dressings were replaced. I found it hard to breathe because of my ribs but I managed it as best as I could. The cast on my wrist was quite primitive but it did the job of keeping my hand straight whilst the bone healed. **

**Larten came to visit me frequently. I loved it because he often brought his friends with him so they would all gather around me and play cards or tell stories to keep me entertained. Of course they brought me food and gifts as get well presents. I got a new dagger from Larten and a new cloak from somebody named Suki who was another vampiress. **

**I felt better but it was still hard for me to move. My back was agony as it was so stiff. I felt like somebody had inserted a wooden plank where my spine was supposed to be. I lost all of my flexibility and it would take a lot of exercise to regain my hyper mobility. I got good food and plenty of fresh blood however and that helped me to heal. **

**Six weeks passed by and by now I was up and about but I needed to use a back support to help keep me upright as standing up straight hurt a lot where my vertebrae had not finished forming. **

**Eventually after many weeks of exercise and sheer determination I was able to walk into the Main Entrance Hall and meet the Clan properly. I was permanently scarred and slightly disfigured but everybody in the Clan had scars and stories to tell about how they got them, I was no different. I was very self-conscious to start with but when I saw some of the other Clan members and heard their tales I felt like what happened to me was not that bad. **

**One man had been stabbed five times and he pulled through, another lady had lost her arm in a fierce battle but she still lived and it did not bother her in any way so my minor scarring was nothing even though it was permanent. I was glad that I did not lose any of my limbs to that rabid bear! **

**I made friends with people in the Clan quickly and because I was associated with Larten I was automatically respected although I had wished to earn the Clan's respect instead of being given it straight away because respect should be earned and not just given to anybody. **

**I was given a tour of the mountains where we were. We had a huge underground network and it had taken years to build. We had underground caverns and halls with enough space for the entire Clan to live quite happily. We also had caches of weapons and animals which we needed to provide food and protection from our enemies. As well as this we also had storage facilities so that each clan member had a secure vault to keep their treasured possessions in. **

**A vampire named Seba Nile who had been Larten's tutor was the Quartermaster at the mountain, his job was to make sure that everybody was happy and that everybody had a place to sleep and that their needs were catered for. **

**Seba showed us to our quarters. We had a room on the top floor because I wanted a good view, we obviously had no window but we had a small sky light which I could open and look out of. It had been strategically placed so that the sun could not come in to it but the fresh mountain air could. **

**The best thing about being at the mountains is the food. We get so much choice it is hard to make one sometimes. Everybody has different tastes so there is enough choice to please everyone. **

**I missed my human food so much. I was lucky that there was fresh bread baked daily so for breakfast I had sliced bread with hot mountain berries on top, they were juicy but quite acidic so I put a touch of honey with it to cut through the sharpness of the berries. Lunch was normally stew or thick soup which was either venison or a mix of game with a generous helping of thick bread. Dinner was either spit roasted meat or whatever you wished to cook for yourself as there were a few cans of things in storage but not many vampires went for canned food. **

**I had a good root in the store room and I found a few things that could make a great meal if they were used properly including some herbs and spices. I decided to make a chicken curry for Larten and I using what I found in the cupboard. **

**There was a jar labelled "Mixed spice" so I smelt it and it reminded me of garam masala and turmeric. I went to the chicken pen and I quickly dispatched two of the bigger ones to have enough meat as meat was the main ingredient. I looked around for some oil to make a marinade out of but as there was none I used water and I made a spicy paste to coat the chicken with. I found some fresh onions and garlic which I used and around two hours later a curry was simmering in a large pot over an open fire. **

**The smell wafted through the halls and soon all of the Clan wanted to know what was cooking. I made enough curry to share between Larten and I but not enough for the others so instead I made them something else out of lamb and a few herbs and they seemed happy with that as I could not leave them out of experiencing my cuisine. **

**I took the curry off of the fire and I served it up. It was quite spicy but it was good and it filled me up. **

"**I see your mother taught you how to cook well. I have taught you a bit but maybe you should teach me a few recipes" Larten suggested.**

"**I guess that would be fun. I brought a recipe book from home to use in case I ran out of ideas. I can teach you to read it if you want" I said.**

"**Very well, in return I will teach you how to speak to some of the older clan members and I will teach you about our ceremonies" Larten replied.**

"**Fair deal but I thought vampires all spoke English" I said surprised.**

"**We do all speak English but some of these vampires are from the medieval age when language was different. They speak old English that is what I meant" Larten explained. **

"**Oh right I understand. Very well, you have a deal. I will teach you to read my recipe book if you teach me how to communicate with some of the older Clan members" I said.**

"**Deal" Larten said and we shook on it.**

**I learnt my way around quite quickly. I had to use a stick to walk with as my back was still dodgy but the rest of my wounds had healed and now I had a few scars on my body instead of large, gaping wounds. **

**I met Larten in one of the deserted halls so that I could begin teaching him to read my book. I started at the beginning with the alphabet and I used pictures and I linked them to words so that Larten could associate the word to the picture. **

**Pretty soon Larten could read some of my basic recipes and he could read a short paragraph if I wrote it, I kept it simple and he picked it up well.**

**Then we started on writing and how to write the words that went with the pictures. **

**Soon it was my turn to learn and Larten taught me well. I picked up on words such as thy and thou and how they should be used. Then I learnt about the Festival of the Undead and how we should all celebrate it and what it represented. **

**A few weeks later Larten had learnt to read and write well enough to make the recipes in my book and he no longer needed the pictures and as for me I could now communicate with the Clan members in old English and in modern English which was a great help because it meant that I could understand the stories that they had told me and I now understood just what I had become a part of when I had been blooded on that fateful but extremely fun evening. **

**I liked the quarters that I had been given, they were rather large and they connected to the shower room which was really a cavern with two waterfalls flowing into a deep pool that flowed out of the holes in the wall so the water was always fresh but icy cold. In order to wash I had to plunge myself under the waterfall in the pool and swim around to get clean. It felt like going outside on a cold day in Finland without a coat on or any socks or shoes. I got used to it though and my super tough skin and extra warm blood made it not so bad but a human would probably get hypothermia if they went into water that cold, it was as cold as the Arctic in the winter but there was no way of heating the water efficiently so I had to put up with it. **

**At least I had warm, dry clothes to put on afterwards and a decent towel to use. All the other clan members had long strips of cloth or old clothing to dry off with; I was quite privileged in that sense. **

**Chapter 11 the Bars**

**When I could walk without a stick and when I could stand up straight properly without it hurting me I decided to enter the Games Room and see what there was on offer. I saw a huge wooden contraption that looked like a set of monkey bars but instead of going across the bottom a woman was standing on top of it holding a long stick that looked odd. **

**I saw the woman hit the other woman with a stick and she fell off onto the hard stone floor but she got straight up and started cheering on her friend who was also aloft. **

**About ten minutes later only one woman was on top and the others had been knocked off. I was surprised but it looked like fun.**

"**I would like to have a go on this contraption" I said nervously.**

"**What on the Bars?" The woman asked me.**

"**Yes it looks like fun" I said.**

"**It is fun. Anyway what brings you to the mountain? Who are you?" The woman asked me.**

"**I am here with Larten. I have to be presented to the Vampire Council and my name is Sarah" I explained.**

"**What are you doing here with Larten? Do you not know who I am?" The woman asked.**

"**No I do not know who you are" I replied.**

"**My name is Arra Sails" Arra said to me with a fierce look in her eyes.**

"**I know who you are now. I have heard many tales about you Arra" I said smiling.**

"**Why are you here with Larten?" Arra asked me in an even fiercer voice. I could tell that she was not happy. **

"**Larten is my mate Arra. We love each other" I replied simply.**

"**Don't make me laugh. Larten would not go near a half blood like you when he can have me" Arra replied. **

"**Larten is the one who blooded me and brought me here. He saved my life and I am full blood not half-blood" I replied.**

"**Don't lie to me Sarah. I will ask him myself when I see him and if you have lied to me you will be sorry" Arra growled through gritted teeth.**

"**Oh there you are my love. I have been looking for you" Larten said as he appeared in the Halls of Sport.**

"**It has been a long time Larten. You have not changed at all but I have" Arra replied.**

"**Well it has been sixty years Arra. I am only six years older though physically. I can see that you and Sarah have met" Larten said as he looked up at Arra.**

"**About that Larten Sarah says she is your mate and that you have brought her here. Is it true?" Arra asked Larten.**

"**Of course it is true Arra. Sarah is indeed my new mate and I expect you to treat her with respect" Larten said sternly.**

"**So you were not lying then Sarah? I have not got time for this. Seeing you again Larten is hard enough after what you did to me but coming here with your new mate is unforgivable" Arra said.**

"**I came into the Halls of Sport to have some fun. I want to duel on the Bars Larten" I said. **

"**Absolutely not Sarah, there is no way that you would survive a duel upon the Bars" Larten said.**

"**Well you can train me and prepare me first Larten so that it makes the fight a fair one" I asked.**

"**You seriously want to duel on the Bars?" Arra asked me.**

"**Yes I do Arra" I retorted in a determined voice with the same determination showing on my face. **

"**It is Miss Sails to you and for the record you will talk to me with respect" Arra said angrily.**

"**Let us go back to the matter in hand over who I should duel" I replied. At this point Arra got a glint in her eyes.**

"**I hereby challenge you Sarah to a duel upon the Bars. Do you accept my challenge?" Arra called down from the Bars.**

"**You cannot be serious Arra you would kill Sarah for sure" Larten piped up.**

"**Once a challenge has been made it cannot be recanted Larten you know that" Arra replied.**

"**OK Arra I accept your challenge. If I win you will show me the necessary respect that I will earn by beating you and if you win which is likely I will give up my mateship. Then you can reinstate your mateship with Larten without any objection" I said. **

"**No Sarah I cannot let you risk your life like this" Larten said in response.**

"**The challenge has been accepted and your terms are acceptable Sarah. Sarah and I will duel but to be fair I will permit you to spend some time training first to make it more interesting for me. There would after all be no challenge in facing you now as it would be too easy for me and I love a challenge" Arra replied.**

"**Very well Miss Sails. Thank you for this and I am looking forward to it" I said.**

"**How can you look forward to being beaten to a pulp and having your skull cracked in half?" Arra asked laughing sarcastically.**

"**I am looking forward to wiping that smile off your face when I defeat you and earn your respect and it will be your skull that is cracked in half Arra" I replied with determination in my voice.**

"**We will see about that. Anyway I must go and inform my mate of this even though our term is nearly over I still have to show him the respect that he is due" Arra replied as she left the Halls of Sport with her head held high in a very snobbish manner. **

"**It was nice to meet you Miss Sails" I called out before Arra left.**

"**Sarah I meant to tell you about Arra. Arra is very snobbish and she looks down upon everybody because she still thinks of herself as a vampiress with high status. I will indeed prepare you for your duel against her but it will not be easy and you could be killed so this for you is an almighty challenge" Larten said. **

"**Well with you training me I will be OK. If I defeat Arra it will knock her down off of her high horse and I will earn her respect and if I lose then I will lose you if I do not lose my life first" then I continued "How arrogant and cocky can you be?" **

"**Arra is angry because I nearly became a Vampire Prince but I gave it all up and Arra has never forgiven me for ripping her of her high status as a Prince's mate or so she would have been if I had of stayed in the mountain. When I left Arra to join the Cirque Du Freak I offered her the chance to come with me but she refused so we split up. Although we still kept in contact and Arra visited me once but it did not go the way that she had hoped that it would. I was with someone else at the time and as a result of Arra catching me in a compromising position she returned to the mountain and we have not spoken until just now. That was a long time ago and Arra has never forgiven me for hurting her but had I known that she was coming to visit me I never would have gotten with someone else. That is all it is" Larten explained.**

"**So Arra still sees herself as having high status?" I asked.**

"**Yes and she has never stopped thinking like that and Arra hates me for what I did to her which is understandable but she has moved on and so have I. I was young and stupid and I paid the price for it but that is neither here nor there. We have work to do and after we have eaten I will begin to train you"**

**Larten replied.**

"**Ok Larten. Thank you for explaining the situation to me" I replied then we left the Halls of Sport to go and eat our pot full of rabbit stew and dumplings.**

**After we had eaten Larten began to train me on the Bars just as he said he would. Larten picked out a suitable staff for me and he taught me the rules before he let me go upon the Bars and practice. **

**I got the hang of it but it was not as easy as it looked. I learnt how to block a strike first of all and how to give one back but as for balancing and hopping from bar to bar that took a bit of time. **

**Eventually Larten and I had a sparring match so that I could see how to put it all together and duel. A sparring match is like a practice or a rehearsal before the real thing where little tweaks can be made in time.**

**I met Larten in the centre of the Bars and we knocked our staves together in salute and then it started. I hopped backwards and dodged a blow before I returned one which hit the target but that was about all I could manage. The combinations were too fast to watch and although Larten did not knock me off he showed me a thing or two in order to prepare me for my big duel against the undefeated champion Arra Sails. **

**My big night had arrived. I could not eat because I was that nervous about my duel but I had the support of Larten and all of his friends with the exception of Arra's mate Darryl who was on her side for obvious reasons. I was scared but I did not let it show. I had a new custom made staff which was light to hold and easy to use. It had been a gift from Seba who thought that the actual staves in the Halls of Sport were not that good so he went out of his way and he made me my very own staff with my name carved into it and everything which I was very impressed with. I believed that Larten had done me a favour by asking Seba to make it but I did not ask. **

**I entered the Halls of Sport and the whole clan were in there waiting for me. Arra had not yet arrived so that gave me a little bit of time to compose myself. I was wearing traditional duellists' clothes which had armour secretly stitched into the trousers and on the shirt so that I would have some protection because Arra hit hard and my bones were not so strong after the bear had attacked me. **

**It was not against the rules to use armour but it was not encouraged so I did not tell anybody about it. I had stitched in a couple of metal plates and a bit of flexible leather to act as extra padding on my ribs and on my back where my bones were weakest. **

**I sat down at a table and I had a drink whilst I waited for Arra to arrive. After a while Arra walked into the room followed by some kind of entourage of clan members who had been waiting out in the corridor for her to arrive. Arra wasted no time. She hopped up onto the Bars straight away and I had to join her up there. I was nervous but Larten was right there in the front watching me. **

**Some of the clan had made support banners. One of mine said "Crack her skull in Sarah" and one of Arra's said "Give 'er Hell up there!" I walked to the middle of the Bars and then as we knocked our staves together the referee shouted**

"**Begin" and that was it. I jumped back to a slightly higher bar and Arra came at me so fast I got a big side swipe but I retaliated with a combo of my own making. Then I leapt forward and over the top of Arra who was bent over slightly and as I leapt over her I swung my staff around in a wicked way that landed on her head. I had made a direct hit. Arra was dazed but she came at me again with no mercy hitting me with all of her might. I blocked and ducked before I really got stuck in. I was using the techniques that I had been shown but Arra kept on coming. After forty minutes we were still fighting hard, neither of us wished to surrender and neither of us would surrender. **

**Eventually I had an idea. It was going to be hard to do but if it worked I would win. I had to snap Arra's staff by jumping on it as the rules state that if your staff breaks the other player wins. I had to draw Arra close to me and I had to make her perform a move which would make her put her staff out so that I could jump onto it and snap it. It was a risky strategy but it had to be done because I was not going to win otherwise. **

**I tried everything to get Arra to put her staff in the right place but I think that she must have figured out what I was trying to do, she was after all a champion. **

**After another forty minutes of duelling (although to me it felt a lot longer than that!) Arra did something that was totally unexpected. Arra held her staff in the air and she called out the words;**

"**This match is a draw"**

**Upon hearing these words I was stunned as Arra had never called a draw before but she obviously saw that there was no shame in calling a draw after such a long fight. **

"**What happens now Arra? Do I have your respect?" I asked bravely.**

"**I called the draw because I can see your determination and you clearly have talent to stay upon the Bars this long. You have earned my respect Sarah and I will not renew my mateship with Larten because I love Darryl too much to hurt him" Arra explained.**

"**Ok that is fair enough. Now I am shattered so I am going to have a drink do you want to join me?" I asked.**

"**No I have duties to attend to but I will see you around" Arra said as she left the Halls of Sport.**

**Calling a draw traditionally meant that we had to schedule a rematch but that was fine by me. It also meant that I had learned a lot and that winning a duel on the Bars was not as easy as Arra had made it look in the past. **

**The crowd were entertained and the prospect of a rematch got them talking. Nobody knew what to expect from the rematch but it was going to be great! **

**I was shattered after my duel but it had loosened my muscles up and I had learned a few moves, however I did not believe that Arra had intended to teach me what she had taught me. I bumped into her a few nights later in one of the halls where food was served and as I was alone Arra came and sat with me which I thought was nice of her.**

"**Evening Sarah I hope you enjoyed our duel. I am surprised that you stood your ground against me. You did extremely well. I was quite impressed and there is no shame in calling a draw after such a fight" Arra said.**

"**Well thank you; I was only doing what I had been taught to do. I surprised myself actually and now we have our rematch to look forward to" I replied.**

"**Yes that's true. Is Larten being a good mate?" Arra asked.**

"**I have no complaints Miss Sails. Larten is an absolute star" We met on the street when Larten was handing out flyers for the Cirque Du Freak" I explained.**

"**Oh right. Did you watch the Cirque Du Freak?" Arra asked.**

"**Yes and I saw Madam Octa up close, she is such a beautiful spider Arra" I replied.**

"**I know she is. I have held her and she has spun a web over my mouth before" Arra said.**

"**Oh right, that must have been nice" I said.**

"**It was but I will not tell you what happened next" Arra smiled.**

"**I think that I can work it out anyway thank you Miss Sails" I replied.**

"**As you have my respect you can call me Arra if you wish" Arra said.**

"**That would be cool. Anyway as I was saying when I joined the Clan Larten helped me to fake my death and we lived in a hayloft before we came here for the Council. I have had such a great time here so far" I said.**

"**That is good. I am happy that you like it here as vampirism is forever and there is no going back now" Arra said.**

"**I know that. I could not leave Larten even if I wanted to. I love him too much Arra" I explained.**

"**What do you like most about Larten?" Arra asked me.**

"**It was his eyes that did it for me. I love Larten's blue eyes Arra and when he kissed me for the first time I fell for him at that moment" I explained. **

"**Where is your crest Sarah?" Arra asked me.**

"**Oh my necklace and brooch were sold for ransom when I was abducted by vampaneze and as a result I was in the sewers for weeks at the mercy of a vampaneze named Damien. Do you know anything about Damien Arra?" I asked.**

"**I have heard the name. I had a run in with Damien once before and a vicious fight took place between Damien and Larten. Larten should have killed him but he showed mercy instead so as not to spark a war because of the agreement between the Vampire Clan and the vampaneze" Arra explained.**

"**Oh right. Do you have any crests or mateship jewellery Arra?" I asked hoping to see it.**

"**I have two crests, the one that Larten gave me and Darryl's one. I have a mateship bracelet and a ring on my wedding finger which shows that I am in a mateship. You may borrow one of my pieces of jewellery if you wish until Larten can get you a replacement for the stuff that you sold for your ransom and since I have Darryl's bracelet I have no need of this" Arra explained.**

"**Thank you so much Arra" I replied as Arra passed me her bracelet that she had on her left wrist. I looked expensive. **

"**What is the story with this bracelet then Arra?" I asked.**

"**Larten gave it to me as a gift. It has his name engraved into it and as I am no longer his mate I think that you should wear it instead of me but I will want it back at some point. You can call it a long term loan" Arra explained.**

"**Again I say thank you so much Arra. You did not have to do this for me" I said.**

"**I know but you have to have something as it is tradition. I have to go now because it is my group's turn to hunt but I will see you soon no doubt" Arra said as she left.**

**The bracelet fit my wrist almost perfectly which was great and as a result of wearing it I felt a lot better because I had something with Larten's name engraved into it around my wrist. **

**I rushed off to tell Larten because I was very excited. I found him in the storage room looking for some new shoes.**

"**Hey honey, how are you?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am fine thank you my love and look what Arra gave me" I said as I flashed my borrowed bracelet. **

"**Arra let me borrow it until you can get me a replacement for the one you sold for my ransom" I explained.**

"**Did she now? Well I am most pleased and you can tell her from me that I owe her a favour for her kind act" Larten replied as he found what he was looking for.**

"**I will see you later then my love" I said as I left Larten to go exploring.**

**As a result of my explorations around the mountain I found myself in a hall where I joined Vancha and Seba in a game of chess. **

**I went to bed late that day. I had not been tired so I had stayed up to watch the chess match until it finished. When I did return to my quarters I curled up in my hammock and I slept under Larten's cloak as I always did. I had a bed and a coffin also but the hammock was my favourite thing as it swung and it was really cool sleeping whilst hanging in the air practically. **

**Larten of course joined me when he returned from his business and then we curled up together for the first time in a long time for Larten had been doing a lot of business recently which meant that he had not been coming to bed with me so it was nice to be next to him once more. I had missed Larten's touch and I had missed being enclosed in his arms whilst I slept. I dreamed of war and of blood like most vampires. I also dreamed about my friends and how much older they would be now as it had been a long time since I had been human but I had not aged at all. I think that I must have been on the road for a year or so but I had been in the hayloft for a lot longer than that. **

**I had no watch or clock so keeping track of time was hard. I had learned to read the stars to know what time of year it was as the mountains seemed to be season less. Days and nights all ran together and there was no specific time schedule for anyone. **

**We knew when the council meetings were because we were told but other than that we had to keep track of time by ourselves. I did not even know how long I had been on the road for as Larten and I had travelled for miles. **

**The hotel clock had helped me and so had the hotel calendar but it was hard to remember things like that as I was too preoccupied with my mountain duties and Larten's lessons. **

**With each new evening I found new things to do and enjoy. I organised the store rooms and I looked after the animals that we had. I also helped out any clan member who needed my assistance. I had to take care of Madam Octa also, I liked her a lot and I trained her a bit but my main task was to feed her and to keep her healthy. Looking after a spider was not that hard but Madam Octa's bite was lethal to anybody so I had to be careful about where and when I let her out of her wooden cage for some exercise. I am sure that she liked me but she was Larten's so I had to remember that. **

**I met Arra in one of the corridors and she was carrying a stag that she had brought back with her from her hunt.**

"**Hey Arra do you need help?" I asked.**

"**No I am fine thanks. This stag is light but it is awkward to balance on my shoulders that is all" Arra replied. **

"**By the way Larten told me to tell you that he owes you a favour for lending me your bracelet" I said.**

"**You can tell him that he can make it up to me later on tonight" Arra said.**

"**Alright I will pass the message on" I said.**

**Arra was covered in blood from the stag and her hair was a mess but other than that she looked like she had enjoyed her hunt. I was looking forward to going hunting when it was my turn but I doubted that I could bring down a stag like Arra had done. **

**One evening I went down into the storage rooms in the mountain to find some clean sheets for my bed but instead of finding sheets I found a whole hoard of vampaneze who had been hiding in there...**

**Chapter 12 War with the Vampaneze**

**It was just after sunset when I heard the news about the traitor Kurda Smalt and what he had done to the clan. Kurda Smalt was preparing for his investiture as a Vampire Prince but he had betrayed us by secretly being in league with our enemies and as a result of Kurda's treachery we were now at war with the vampaneze. **

**The vampaneze had invaded our mountain using a secret underground tunnel which had lead to the storage rooms where I stumbled across them by accident. **

**Kurda had made maps of the tunnels and he knew where they lead so it was easy for him to find a hidden entrance into the mountain where the vampaneze had entered by. Discovering the vampaneze hoard had not been part of the vampaneze's plan but it was just as well that I had found them and raised the alarm or they could have overrun the central part of our home. I now had no choice but to fight with the other clan members on the battle field to protect the clan and our mountain. **

**I quickly found Larten and a few other vampires; some already had blood on their swords where they had killed. I had my own weapons which I used and I also had a horse which I had been given as a welcome gift when I joined the clan. I had trained my horse to run far and at speed which would prove to be a great advantage on the field of battle. **

**Despite having a war horse I was petrified of going into battle. I had not had any training for war at all other than hand to hand combat and basic skills with a bladed weapon. I could not face it but as a clan member and as a hater of vampaneze I had to fight. **

**I found Larten who was already prepared for war in full armour and he had a long double edged sword in a scabbard by his side. I had to wear my Bars armour because I had no other stuff that would fit me. Everything was too big in the store room. I did however find a small shield that I could use and my horse had some armour that had been made for it. I should have been safe on a horse or at least safer but in war there are no guarantees about anybody or anything. **

**I was put near the side of the middle ranks and my job was to spot things and to relay messages back and forth. I was lucky that Larten was also in the middle ranks with Arra and Vancha as well as Gavnur and a few others who were good fighters. We were being kept back as reserves in case the front line faltered or failed in its duty to defeat the main vampaneze force or if it needed back up in any way. **

**I had the idea of putting metal points onto the ends of the Bars staves and making a wall of spears to stop the vampaneze from advancing. We had no metal points but we tied daggers on the end instead, they were longer and stronger anyway. It took a while to prepare, we needed to create a diversion and that is where Madam Octa and the cave came into play. **

**There was a large cave that was separated from the main hall by a few yards. Larten's plan was to drive the vampaneze in there where they would be trapped and send in Madam Octa and her offspring which numbered the low thousands. The spider lings were as deadly as their mother but they had their father's markings and they were small enough not to be seen before they could bite and release their deadly toxins. **

**The plan worked like a charm but disaster struck and we lost a few vampires in the cave as there was not much room to manoeuvre in there. The main force remained intact and our spear wall worked well until the leader of the vampaneze got through it and went into the cave. **

**We were still fighting viciously and there were dead vampaneze everywhere. I thought that we were close to victory and we were but we paid a high price for our eventual win. I had let somebody else use my horse because I could not enter the cave where the main fight was taking place whilst I was riding it. I was needed to fight on the ground, my horse was used by another vampiress called Anna who used it to relay messages, and she also used it to transport injured vampires to the medical wing. My horse turned out to be very useful. **

**Arra had been in the cave holding her own and fighting like a demon and she had slain many vampaneze who crossed her until the leader himself Glalda took her on and there she fell victim to his blade. The wound was deep but Arra held on to life for ages and I thought that she was going to survive but alas it was not to be and she passed away into vampire Paradise in the medical wing with Larten at her side. I heard what Arra said to Larten and I was seething with anger but I forgave her as she was dying. This is what Arra said to Larten that made me angry;**

"**Larten please look after Darren. Do not let them kill him and please take care of Sarah as you took care of me when we were mates. I would ask you to kiss me one last time but I am in no shape for it..." and to that Larten had replied;**

"**There will be plenty of time for kissing later but you must get well first" **

**This comment by Larten had made me cross but I understood and I would ask him to explain his actions later when I had calmed down. **

**After a few hours of fighting for her life Arra no longer had the strength to hold on any longer so she let go and she died.**

**Back in the cave the battle was raging and it was getting more violent. Blood was everywhere; corpses littered the cave although most were the enemy and all around me I heard the clashing of swords and the cries of the wounded who were trapped. I swore revenge in Arra's name so I very boldly took Glalda on as Arra had done. Larten saw what I was doing and he darted over to be my back up but he need not of worried because I struck him in his ribs with my dagger and he fell down to the ground. I then sliced his head off and put it on a spear to have as a trophy. I retrieved my dagger from his headless corpse and then the vampaneze who could escape got out of the cave and they all flitted but we chased them down and killed them. **

**The injured vampaneze and their leaders were held in the dungeons for execution or release depending on their sentencing that would be given in due course. **

**We had been victorious but at a cost. Arra had died and Vancha had a deep wound on his arm but Larten was unscathed and I had not been hurt that badly. I had a few scratches and a graze or two but nothing major and the others were ok. Even Madam Octa had survived being in the cave and as she had done her job so well we thought that we had to thank her for our victory as much as every other brave vampire and vampiress who had fought for us. **

**I was of course extremely sad to hear of Arra's passing but she had fought so bravely and with such courage that she had made some of the Generals almost envious of her skills on the battlefield. **

**It did however mean that we never got to have our rematch on the Bars so instead we left it as a draw and the score was carved onto the wall behind the Bars as:**

**Arra VS Sarah = Draw**

**RIVP Arra**

**The "RIVP Arra" was added afterwards as a mark of respect. RIVP stands for "Rest In Vampire Paradise" it's a vampiric way of saying rest in peace. **

**The whole clan mourned for a week after the battle as was the custom. We all missed our comrades and though I did not know them all personally I felt connected to them and I felt the Clan's pain at their passing. **

**Larten was inconsolable. Nobody dared to go near him or even speak to him whilst he was in this state of mourning. Larten took to looking after Darryl who had been badly wounded, he was often in the medical wing with him as they both shared a link to Arra and Larten felt that it was his duty to do what Arra would have wanted which was to make sure that Darryl was ok as he could do nothing for Arra now.**

**I visited and I took a pot full of fresh game stew and I shared it out with everyone in the medical wing who wanted some, some of the injured had broken jaws so they could not eat it. Instead I made soup and I took it to them when it was ready. **

**I popped in to see Darryl after I had handed out the soup to the patients as he was in his own room; everyone else had to share a dormitory type room. Darryl got his own room because he was in mourning and he wanted to be alone with the exception of myself and Larten. **

**We were allowed to visit Darryl as that was his wish and it helped him to deal with his loss. As we had all been connected to Arra having us around him was like having a part of Arra still with him. I was still scared of Larten. I think that he wished to be alone as well but he had duties to attend to and he was not one to show his emotion but one look into his eyes told me everything. I could see how deeply Arra's passing had hit him and I did not know what to do. **

**The battle and the death of Arra had hit me hard too but the Clan had supported me and because I had killed Glalda the Clan had more respect for me than what they had for me previously. I did not like what I did, I regretted it but I had no choice. I had to defend the clan and I had to avenge Arra for Larten's sake if nobody else's and he knew it deep down inside him. **

**However I think he would rather have killed Glalda himself. I had killed Glalda and I was not sure how Larten would react to it because he did not avenge Arra as he should have done. Darryl felt like he should have done it but as he was already being treated in the medical wing when Arra was brought in he did not get the chance to avenge her. Larten had been my back up during the fight with Glalda but I struck the fatal blow by sticking my dagger deep into Glalda's ribs, then I watched him collapse and I called him "Vampaneze scum" before I cut off his head. Then I left to finish off the stragglers and the enemies who were still on the field. I remember what I did and it stuck in my brain like superglue sticks broken china together. **

**I remembered how we had slaughtered the remaining enemy force. I recalled that we had chased the escapees until they were caught and killed, it did not matter how far away they had flitted. I also remembered how some of the vampire Generals had captured the Vampaneze Leaders to gain information that we could use in the future and I watched them being dragged away into the dungeons to be tortured and then executed. **

**I remained in the medical wing for treatment as after the battle my back had started to hurt. My vertebrae were clicking and it was painful when I walked so I went to get some physiotherapy which was a new treatment that had only recently started in the mountains. When I was better I plucked up the courage and I confronted Larten about his conversation with Arra on the night that she had died.**

"**Hey Larten, can I ask you something?" I asked.**

"**Of course you can my love. What is it that you wish to know?" Larten replied.**

"**Why did you say to Arra that you would kiss her when she was better after the battle?" I asked with fire in my eyes.**

"**You heard me say that Sarah? I was mixed up at the time and I was trying to make Arra feel better as she was dying that is all" Larten explained.**

"**So if Arra had not of died would you have kissed her?" I asked.**

"**I cannot answer that Sarah. I may have done if I am being honest but it would not have gone any further" Larten admitted.**

"**What would Darryl have said about that Larten? By saying that you have just proven to me that you love Arra more than me or you would not even think about being unfaithful to me" I said angrily.**

"**I am sorry. I did not mean to upset you my love I was not thinking at the time when I said what I said. Can you forgive me?" Larten asked.**

"**I guess that I can forgive you because of the circumstances but I was hurt by your words Larten and sometimes words can hurt more than a blade" I replied.**

"**Again I apologise for that. Can we forget it and move on from this unpleasantness?" Larten asked me.**

"**I think so we are both adults and old enough to make our own choices and I am choosing to let it go and get on with more important matters in life" I said.**

"**That is fair enough Sarah. I will come and see you later but I have duties now and so do you" Larten reminded me.**

**So we both left the hall where we were and we went our separate ways to complete our duties. I had to stretch before I did my jobs because my muscles were hurting.**

**I had to exercise regularly to keep the joints mobile but I also had to take it steady afterwards which meant that I could not fight and it meant no excessive game play or duelling until my back was fully healed. I was quite disappointed but I knew that it was for the best as I could not afford to get hurt again. **

**I had the task of organising Arra's funeral. It was horrible because I hated having to say goodbye but Larten was in no fit state to do it and Darryl was still too injured and upset to leave his room so I took it upon myself to organise it. I knew that Arra was not one for pomp and ceremony but I knew that she would want a good send off so I did my best to do what I think she would have approved of. **

**I organised the hall where she would be cremated as it was vampire tradition, I hung flowers up and I tried to make Arra look presentable as I had to prepare her body as well. I hated it and I was hurting but I had a job to do and I could feel some kind of presence where I was, I believed that it was Arra's restless soul waiting for her body to be burned so that she could enter Paradise. I washed and dressed Arra's corpse and I gave back the bracelet which I had borrowed from her and I put it on her wrist along with a few other items that she had loved like her personal staff which I placed beside her. I covered the pyre in flowers and she was surrounded by them as she loved flowers. **

**When all was prepared I sounded the mourning horn which is blown to let the clan know when a funeral is about to begin. It was a small affair but every able vampire paid their last respects and as it was tradition Larten and Darryl set the pyre alight before we all left to hold a celebration of life for Arra which was like a wake. It was meant to be a happy event to give thanks for her time in the clan. It was also a time to reminisce and tell stories and anecdotes about Arra so that everyone could share in something and show how much they cared in case she was watching them. **

**I was still worried about Larten for he had not been to our quarters and he had not spoken or eaten anything for a while. I guessed that he was mourning in his own way so I did not question him about it out of respect as it was not really my place to do so. **

**A few nights later I found Larten inside Arra's quarters sorting out her meagre possessions. Arra had not owned much and what she did have was what she had been given as gifts. I helped out by emptying the draws in her desk and I found two letters, one was for Larten and the other was for Darryl which I delivered. **

**The letter to Larten said:**

**My dear Larten,**

**If you cannot read this get somebody to read it to you. If you are reading this it means two things, one you can read and the other is that I am no longer around. I hope that my passing has not caused to too much pain and distress. Remember that I have given up my life for the clan which is an honour. I know how much you will miss me and I know what we meant to each other but you have Sarah now so I want you to take good care of her and to treat her in the same way that you treated me. I love you and that will never cease, I love Darryl too but not in the same way. I have left Sarah my jewellery and I have left her a set of instructions for duelling on the Bars so that she may learn a few combination moves. I have left you what is in my money bag, I hope it is enough to buy Sarah something to replace the necklace which you sold to release her when she was abducted. **

**I am at peace now but a part of me is inside you forever so we will never be apart. Please do not mourn for too long as I do not want you to be sad for me but instead be joyful and remember the good times when we had one barrel of ale too many and we awoke with sore heads.**

**Goodbye my dear friend**

**Arra **

**Larten read his letter and he smiled wryly although he was still in shock. Larten was not one to show his emotion but I could see that he was a lot better for reading his letter. I guess that by writing the letters to Larten and Darryl Arra had tried her best to help them heal and it had worked although it took time. I was still upset by the whole situation but Darryl was the worst. He obviously found it hard to cope with the loss of his beloved Arra but slowly he returned to normal and a few months later he found himself a new girlfriend. She was a human when he met her but that was soon changed and we welcomed Raven into the vampire clan with open arms.**

**Raven looked like a teenager and she followed a gothic style. Raven was in her mid-twenties and she was quite a rebel, she answered to no one and she did not take criticism kindly but deep down she had a good heart and she had a fierce loyalty to Darryl which he liked. **

**Raven was originally named Beth by her parents, as the name Raven was darker and as it was better than the name Beth it was deemed more suitable for a vampiress. In order to fit into the clan better Beth changed her name to Raven. I had often thought about my name and whether my name was suitable but as I liked my name I kept it. **

**Larten was still missing Arra; I could see it in his eyes although he did not admit it. Larten had followed Arra's instructions. He looked after me well just as Arra had asked him to and he had also bought me another piece of jewellery that had his crest on it. **

**This time I got given a bracelet but this one was mine and it was not borrowed. It had an engraving into the inside of it and it was sapphires set into silver with a couple of diamonds hanging from its clasp. **

**It had Larten's crest hanging from it also, it looked like a charm bracelet but it was much more expensive and it was dazzling in the light with the cornflower blue sapphires, the stones were almost the shade of Larten's eyes, those same eyes that had made me transfixed the first time I looked into them. **

**I read the inscription that said:**

"**For my beloved clan member forever yours L.C" and it had a symbol of infinity after it that looked like the number eight but it was sideways. **

**I thought it was really sweet; I wore the bracelet all the time and I never took it off. I showed it off to my friends who were of course jealous but they saw how much it meant to me and they admired it. I had to give Larten something in return as he did not have anything with my crest on it although I had no crest; it was sort of like when a lady would give a knight her favours before a joust. I had to think about it carefully. **

**As I had no money to speak of and I was miles away from a town I could not buy anything so I had to make something. Larten had made the bracelet himself after pulling in a few favours and he paid them with Arra's money that she had left but I could not do that so I searched the store room for some things to use. **

**I decided to make him a token of some kind using my embroidery skills. I got some thread out of my mini sewing kit and I stitched onto a piece of linen our initials entwined with Larten's crest on one side and a bat on the other which would serve as my crest. I made it into a favour that could be carried with Larten in his pocket or on his person somewhere. **

**I wrapped it up when it was finished and I gave it to him.**

"**I have something for you. It is my gift to you in return for the bracelet" I said as I handed Larten the tiny parcel.**

**Larten un-wrapped it and pulled out my embroidery, and then he said:**

"**It is really well made; I can see that you have put a lot of effort into it. Is it a handkerchief?"**

"**Not exactly, it is meant to be a favour. It has my bat crest on it you see so you can take it with you and that way you are carrying my crest as I wear yours" I explained.**

"**Oh of course, I see now. I had quite forgotten about favours and ladies. It was not done so much when I grew up but it is very thoughtful of you to give me your crest in this manner, if you think of me as your knight then it makes me think of you as my fair maiden but of course you are no maid" Larten replied with a slight smirk. **

"**Well I do not see you as my knight, I see you more as the one I love with the whole of my heart and soul and to be apart from you is absolute torture. By the way I was a maid as you put it until you came along and I am glad that you did because you are so good at what you do" I replied.**

"**What do I do? If that is the case then we must not separate for too long a period. I feel the same way about you but I am no good at showing my emotions as you know" Larten responded. **

"**Well you make me feel everything you do. It gets better every time and I love it when you touch me and what you do to me when we are in bed is just amazing" I said. **

"**Well I did tell you right at the beginning that it would improve. I had to see if you could take it and if you were suitable to join the clan" Larten replied. **

"**Oh right well I think I have proven myself more than worthy to be here" I said.**

"**Yes I would say so but the big thing is whether the council like you. You have only met a few councillors, most stay in their chambers and I can tell you that they are quite cold and not very welcoming but the others are ok" Larten said.**

"**Ok then, I am sure that everything will be ok. I hope to make a good impression on them all" I responded. **

**We had finished clearing out Arra's quarters and though Darryl had also slept there he wanted new quarters for him and Raven as he did not want to stay in a room where Arra had been as it was too upsetting for him which was understandable. **

**I poked my head out of the sky light in my quarters before I got into my hammock as it was daylight outside and I was tired after moving a large amount of furniture around to help out. **

**I got a good sniff of the air when I poked my head out of the sky light, I could smell a bonfire which was not unusual as many vampires cooked outside or burned their old linens to stop infections spreading too much, that was often done by the medical staff who had to deal with everything to colds and coughs to broken bones and infected wounds and they did a good job of it using what little equipment they had available to them.**

**Larten and I curled up together like we usually did and normally I would snuggle up close to him and fall asleep in his arms but not tonight. I could not sleep for some reason so I got under the cloak and I got on top of Larten who kissed me with vampiric lust. The hammock was quite large so it was ok to roll around in but I preferred the bed so we got on it and proceeded to have some fun since we had not done anything for quite a while. **

**I missed kissing so badly that when we did I made it last as long as I could. I began to rock on top and I did a lot of pulsing my tongue in Larten's mouth and biting his neck but not hard, it was more of a playful thing. **

**I then let Larten take over and of course he went inside me and then he got rough but it felt good so I did not mind. I loved it when I had Larten inside my body almost flooding me with his fluids as there was so much of it. **

**I loved it when he would completely consume me which was when he would kiss me and caress me and the same time as being inside me, I could not do anything but lie there and enjoy it as it was so much fun.**

**I normally ended up with scratches on my back and bruises on my neck but the best thing was when I was able to curl up next to Larten and I loved it when he would hold me close to him whilst we slept as it made me feel so special and loved. **

**I knew that Larten cared deeply for me but whether he was totally in love with me as much as I was in love with him was hard to tell. I hoped that one night Larten would prove his love for me in some way or he would publically confess how he felt to the clan but that was unlikely as Larten was a private individual who keep his deepest feelings concealed. Not even I could tell what he thought about me. **

**I assumed that he loved me because he told me often but he never said it in public and he never talked to any of his friends about me. The other vampires would sing their partners' praises and say how great they were. **

**I knew that Larten hated boasting but saying to his close friends that he loved me was not boasting. I wished to confront him but I was scared of doing so in case I upset him but one night I plucked up the courage and I publically confronted him about it.**

"**Do you love me Larten?" I asked**

"**Why do you ask? In public as well" Larten replied.**

"**Because you never say it in public and you never talk about me to your friends, am I unworthy or something?" I asked.**

"**Of course not, I love you deeply but I do not need to tell people that. I see it as a personal thing" Larten said.**

"**Ok, you would tell someone though if they asked you how you felt about me though would you not?" I continued.**

"**I would say that it was not their concern because it is not but if you wish me to I will tell them in future" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right. If you could it would make me feel better. I get asked all the time how I feel about you and I am always honest about it, I hope you can be the same" I said.**

"**Of course dear as you wish. We had better go as the council is about to gather" Larten said.**

**At that point we left for the first of many council meetings.**

**I sat down on one of the long, wooden benches in the hall and I joined Vancha and Vanez whilst I waited for the meeting to start. Larten stayed by my side the whole time, he had to present me to the Clan and the Council formally as tradition stated.**

**Then the meeting started, the twelve council members entered the hall and they all sat down on their table which was on a slightly elevated platform so that they could see us and we could see them. **

**To start with the councillors read out the names of the vampires who had died and the names of those who had fought in the battle, there were forty four vampires in total who had given their lives in battle and another sixteen who had either died on the way here or who had been killed by other means. We still had a fair few hundred in our clan so we were doing quite well numbers wise. To each vampire and vampiress who had died we said:**

"**Evan in death may you be triumphant." after their name and after we had done that we got on to the main council business.**

"**Would Larten Crepsley and his partner come up here please?" One of the senior council members asked.**

**I walked up onto the elevated platform with Larten close behind me.**

"**Larten, you have taken this girl as your partner correct?" The senior councillor asked.**

"**Yes I have my Lord. This young vampiress is Sarah" Larten said.**

"**Step forward Sarah" The councillor said.**

**I stepped forward.**

"**How old are you Sarah?" The councillor asked.**

"**I am twenty four my Lord, I am a fully blooded vampiress." I said.**

"**Very well, you seem suited to this life. Is Larten good to you?" The councillor continued**

"**Very good to me my Lord, he spoils me rotten which I do not deserve. Have you seen this crest he gave me?" I asked.**

"**No, that was my next question. Let me see it" The councillor said.**

"**I took off my bracelet and I handed it over. Larten also handed over the favour which I had made him to be examined.**

"**This is a fine crest; you have obviously put in a lot of effort to find it. The embroidery is good too. These are fine" Said the councillor and he handed them back.**

"**One more thing before we move on, how much do you love Sarah Larten? Sarah how much do you love Larten?" The councillor asked us both.**

"**I love Larten with every part of my heart and soul, to be without him is to be without life because he saved it and I owe him mine in return" I explained.**

"**It is true; I saved Sarah from a bear that had been infected with vampaneze blood. I love her with a burning vampiric passion" Larten explained.**

"**I understand, Sarah if you owe Larten your life then clearly he loves you or he would not have saved you and I can see in your eyes how much that you love Larten. I am content. Let us move on now to our next item on the agenda" The councillor said as we took our seats once more. **

**The meeting dragged on until all of the items on the agenda had been discussed. It took ages because the council had not held a public meeting for years so there were a lot of things to talk about. The most difficult thing was what to do about our defences as we had been breached. It would take a long time to repair the damage that the vampaneze had done to our halls.**

**The vampaneze had not just fought in there they had put blood on the walls and they had carved obscene messages and symbols into the rock.**

**We decided to have a major decorating challenge to see if we could repair the damages before the winter, in the winter those halls were needed for animal houses and nothing could live in them at the moment as they were filthy and infected with the stench of vampaneze. Their blood was poisonous to animals, one lick would make an animal mad and dangerous like that bear had been and we could not risk that. **

**Chapter 13 the Great Mountain Clean Up**

**After the council had concluded their meetings they organised us into teams of twenty, each team had a captain and a specific area to clean up and repair because the mountain was huge, it would take us ages otherwise. **

**I was put into a team with Larten, Vancha, Gavnur, Von, Raven, Amira, Sophia, Peter, Thomas, Steve and a few others who I could not name. Our job was carving the obscene symbols off of the stone walls and painting them afterwards. We also had the carpentry jobs and as I could sew I had to make a few new banners to hang up for celebrations because the others had been torn down, burned and replaced with vampaneze ones. **

"**Sarah you make a start on those banners, I will start carving these walls and the rest of you go and get painting equipment, ladders and overalls for us all" Thomas said, he was our team leader by a two vote margin. **

**I left the halls and I came back with a load of materials and a rather large sewing chest that had been given to me as a gift. **

**I quickly cut out the template pieces to make the banners; I had to make a black background with a red letter "V" stitched into the centre of each black background. I then had to make banners with the vampire crest on it which was a universal symbol used by us all. The symbol was a bat on a dark blue background with a moon and three stars on it. It was like our mountain flag. **

**The black banners were used as decorations and they were hung up in every hall to make the place look good because most of the halls were grey stone where they had not been painted. **

**It took me weeks to make the large banners, even with my super speed. I roped in a few others to help me cut out the pieces so it did not take quite so long. Eventually they were finished and they were hung up over the now painted walls. **

**The carving took not as long and pretty soon the obscene symbols had gone and there were no vampaneze traces left in the halls which was a relief because it had been pretty smelly before. I helped out with the painting. I did what I had to do to make it look good. I helped Larten make a wooden platform on wheels that could be stood on to paint the ceilings. **

**To get onto the platform you vaulted and grabbed on then pulled yourself up, climbed up it from the bottom or you would use a ladder. It was easy to move around. **

**Eventually all of the damaged halls had nice painted ceilings that showed scenes from vampiric folk stories on them. I helped out with the painting, being thirty foot off of the ground did not bother me, I was safe. **

**I helped with the carpentry as well; we made a few new benches and tables because the other ones had been smashed during the battle to make weapons. Some of the tables had been picked up and thrown or piled up and used as a barrier to stop the enemies from advancing deeper into the mountains and it worked for a while but eventually they were smashed into pieces when the enemy broke through so we had to replace all of them. **

**The other thing was that most of the tables had animal bones used instead of wooden legs. The new benches and tables were made properly with wooden legs. As a result of this they were a lot sturdier than the previous tables, they were no longer wobbly. Instead they were stronger and they looked better than the old tables and benches which were made out of planks of wood that had been nailed onto animal leg bones. **

**After four months of hard graft and everybody including the Princes helping out our mountain halls looked great. We had new banners, new furniture, new weapon cases and the store room had been organised so we knew what we had. There was even an item list so we could do a stock take and all of the animals had been counted and numbered so we knew how many we had of each animal. **

**The walls had been painted and we had put up a memorial board, all of the dead vampires would have their name written onto it so that we could remember them and how they died. We also had a new register system so we knew who was at the mountain, who was not at the mountain and where people were if they were needed. **

**It was so organised now and it made life a lot easier for all of us as before nobody knew where anything was or where anybody was. **

**We also put numbers on the doors of the sleeping quarters. That way we knew which vampire had which quarters because quite often newly blooded vampires would get lost and then they would end up in the wrong quarters, if they had a numbered door to go to then that would not happen as much. **

**Pretty soon it was the end of the council and most vampires left the mountains in search of new experiences and new countries to explore. **

**Larten had decided to go back with the circus while I went on an adventure of my own but being apart from him was going to be hell. I had no choice because I had been asked to go by the Generals and I could not refuse a direct order. **

**Chapter 14 the Infiltration of the London Sewers**

**Departing from the mountains was fine. The Generals and I travelled by train and then by bus until we reached Kings Cross. After which we went down a disguised manhole cover and then we were in the heart of the vampaneze underworld. **

**Our job was to find the leader of the vampaneze and slay him, that way the numbers of vampaneze would dwindle and we would be safe from the threat of a war which none of us wanted to fight in. **

**My job was to act as a double agent and a decoy. I had to act like a rogue vampiress who wanted revenge on the clan for something and I had to be a decoy which means that I had to be a distraction whilst the other vampires made their move to capture the vampaneze leader who was reported to be a mere teenage boy not that I believed that!**

**I went ahead into the tunnels, it was pitch black to start with but as I got deeper inside it started to get lighter and eventually there was a green glow where the vampaneze had put in electric cables and green lights to make the place look eerie. I knew that I was getting closer, I could smell the vampaneze. They smelt like old musty socks, dirty clothes and sewage with a strong hint of rat. It was foul! I could also smell corpses and that made me panic because I knew that if there was a high body count then that meant either one of two things: one they were very greedy; or two there were lots more vampaneze alive than what we had anticipated. I had to be extremely cautious and alert in case of booby traps or worse walking into a whole nest of them. **

**As luck would have it I made it down the end of the tunnel safely and I found a disused pipe that had been turned into a type of dormitory, there were a whole load of bunk beds and they had all been used. **

**I exited that pipe and I found like a living area complete with a three piece suite and a television that worked, it's amazing where you can get a signal to watch TV. **

**I knew that they were not paying their licence but who was going to stop them? The TV Company would never find them so they were freeloaders as well as murderers, I bet to myself that the TV belonged to a victim of theirs and the three piece suite was either stolen or "Borrowed" without returning it. **

**It made me sick but I had to infiltrate so I put my feelings aside and I waited for the vampaneze to return. I watched the TV while I waited, then I phoned Larten off of my mobile but he had no signal. He was either on stage, he had no battery or he was flitting somewhere. I left him a text message to say where I was and then I heard voices coming from along the tunnel. The voices sounded male so I waited and I turned off the TV so I could hear them better. **

**I heard the voices getting closer and closer. I was dying to know who it was and then the door to the pipe opened and in walked about eight vampaneze and four vampets who were the equivalent of half-blooded vampaneze. I popped up from behind the sofa and the vampaneze jumped in surprise.**

"**Evening guys, I thought I would come and visit you lot. I am a rogue vampiress who wants more from life than to be stuck in a dingy mountain. I have come to join you" I said.**

"**Oh really, well we have enough room for you but how do we know that you are not a spy or a double agent?" The vampaneze said.**

"**Well I have got information for you and I can tell you with my hand on my heart that I am no spy. Would a spy give away valuable information about the new defences which the clan has?" I said.**

"**Very well, you may stay but you will have to prove yourself worthy to be a member of our clan. Are you up for a hunt? We all are" The vampaneze asked.**

"**Sure thing, I am dying to drain someone of their blood. I have a high blood lust that no vampire feed could satisfy" I said.**

"**Fair enough, let's go. The city has many people to choose from" The vampaneze said.**

"**Who are you all then? I am Sarah" I said.**

"**I am George, then there is Darren and Michael, Steve in the corner there and the others are Jack, Jake, Andrew and Patrick" said George. He was obviously the leader of the troupe. **

**I followed George out of the tunnel and we all popped up out of a manhole cover in an alley way. We crossed the road and then we broke into a block of flats via an open window. George went upstairs and picked out his victim, I followed and I picked out mine and the others waited for their turn, they kept watch whilst we fed. I picked a woman in her thirties, she looked healthy enough, I loathed what I did but I had to convince them that I was on their side. I cut the sleeping woman's vein with one of my nails, clamped my mouth around the wound and then I drained her dry without thinking twice about it. **

**I buried her in the garden next to the block of flats as was customary and then we waited whilst the others had their feed. **

"**What a great feed. Do you not think?" I said.**

"**Yeah, it was ok, I could have done with another but we cannot take too many or the humans would get suspicious" Andrew said, and then George cut in:**

"**You fed well Sarah; you seem to know how to feed properly. I saw how you drained that corpse without stopping or showing remorse. You must have some vampaneze blood in you" **

"**Well I was thirsty; I had not fed for a while so I was hungrier than what I normally am" I said.**

"**Fair enough, anyway we had better get your room prepared. There is a football game on tonight. I think it is Leeds United playing Spurs. Do you want to watch it?" George asked**

"**Hell yeah I support Spurs. I have missed football so much. I am so glad that you have a TV. I hope that I am not putting you out too much; I do not require anything except a room and food. I can clean and hunt for you in return." I offered. **

"**Very well, we have a deal. Welcome the troupe Sarah" George said as we all squeezed onto the sofa or into the chairs to watch the game. **

**I went to bed that morning and when I arose there was a plate of sandwiches by my bed. I scoffed them and then I got dressed and I started cleaning. I knew that Spurs had won their game but as we had all had lager and cider none of us could remember much. **

**I got the slime off of the walls and I fed the rats. We had about six tame ones and a few wild ones and they wandered everywhere. I chucked some bread crumbs and some cheese down for them and they all came out and grabbed it before they scurried away. I also found out where the make shift kitchen was. It was a sink that had been plumbed in to the mains water by a cleverly hidden cable. To get clean water you turned on the tap that was above ground and attached the piece of hose pipe that was there. The hose pipe bypassed the sewers underground and it was inside the main water pipe. You then had to suck the pipe to bring up the water. It was hard to explain but it worked and the water ran through the hose pipe into a large barrel that was by the sink. To get the water you would put a plug in the sink, open the barrel and use a bowl to get out what you needed. Then you would detach the hose pipe and everything would be hidden until you needed it again. Lucky for me the barrel was full so I scooped out what water I needed, put it in the floor washing bucket and I gave the place a good old scrub to get rid of germs and the smell. **

**I found a disposable barbeque pack which I used to cook on. I put a pan on the top of it and I cooked up what I found in the cool box. These vampaneze had thought of everything. I assumed that George must have blooded a plumber and an electrician and then they must have used their trade to make the sewers into a functioning home. **

**They must have rewired the electrics and re-routed the water supply and I figured that the TV satellite dish must have been someone else's but they may have changed the position of it slightly so that they could get their TV for free while the poor human paid for it not realising that they were paying for two TVs and a troupe of vampaneze to watch what they watched. **

**It was very clever but totally illegal and very devious but I had to admire their ingenuity at the same time. I made the most of it and for lunch I cooked up a stew that was made out of the cool box contents. It was mainly meat with a little stock and a dash of wine to make it better. **

**No one complained and we all ate some. Afterwards we got rid of the disposable barbeque and when it was dark I went out shopping using my credit card. I bought food and I bought a few other things like a wash bag and some toiletries to share because keeping clean in a sewer is not easy, even a disused one. **

**I got a call from one of the Generals when I was out. They were pleased with how I had managed to fit in to the troupe so easily. I had my mission to think of though; I had to find out about the vampaneze leader and his plans. **

**I finally heard from Larten, he rang me also and we had a good catch up. He was not far away but I knew that if I took too long the vampaneze would get suspicious so Larten took a risk. He had the night off so he flitted at full speed to pay me a much welcomed visit. **

"**I am so glad to see you. You have no idea what it is like without you." I said.**

"**I know you have a job to do. When you have completed it you may join me at the circus. You have got a slot in my act." Larten said as he held me up above him. **

"**I miss you so much; I hope that my mission does not take too long. If I succeed the whole clan will be safe but if I am discovered it means that I will be killed and that will spark a war" I explained.**

**Larten said nothing to me. He just held me tightly and kissed me, and then he wrapped his cloak around me and said:**

**Take my cloak, that way you can curl up in it every night and think of me whilst we cannot be together" **

"**Thank you darling but the scent would surely give me away" I explained.**

"**Not really, you can say that you killed a vampire and took it as a trophy. That way it explains the scent and it makes you look good" Larten said.**

"**That is a great idea. Thank you for flitting all this way to see me. I must return now as I have been a long time" I said.**

"**Very well, take care of yourself and I am only at the other end of a phone if you need me for anything. Call me whenever you can. I love you with every part of my heart." Larten said as he kissed me once more before he vanished in a red blur. I called out to him as he was still in ear shot **

"**Bye dear, see you soon I hope" **

**I then returned to the sewers with my shopping and Larten's cloak wrapped around me tightly. It smelt of him and of the mountains which made me home sick but I had to focus on my task. **

"**What is that draped around you Sarah?" George asked when I returned.**

"**It was a vampire's cloak; I killed him and took it as a trophy" I explained.**

"**Really, did you know the vampire who you just killed?" George asked me.**

"**No, he was hanging around so I sneaked up on him and stuck my dagger into his back" I said.**

"**Well, well we have a true killer here. Well done Sarah that is one less piece of scum to worry about." George said as he congratulated me.**

"**Hey Sarah has just killed a scum bag vampire, come and see the trophy she has" George called out and the troupe all came in and told me how cool I was. **

"**Check out this cloak, lets hang it up as a banner. It would look good on the wall" Michael said.**

"**No, I want it on my bed as a cover. That way I can be reminded of my first kill. It is big enough to use as a duvet" I said.**

"**George what do you think? Hang it up or let Sarah have it?" Michael asked.**

"**Let Sarah have it for she has earned it. I have some ale, let's celebrate" George said.**

"**Yes let's celebrate; we can call it a vampire killing party" I said.**

"**Great idea we should go and get hammered. What did you do with the corpse?" Steve asked.**

"**I buried it and I took his cloak as a trophy because it is so fine" I explained as I opened a can of strong dark ale.**

"**You know something George? I can drink like a fish if I choose to so getting hammered is a great idea" I said.**

"**Alright everyone let's have a toast to Sarah and her vampire killing ways, long may it continue" said George.**

"**Cheers everybody" I said and we all sat down and ate the snacks which I had bought. I had crisps, cheese footballs and other nibbles. I had also brought back a few other things like crackers and a few sandwich filling things. **

**We partied long after the sun had risen, George attached his MP3 player to the stereo speakers so we could dance and have a real gathering. We were so deep underground that the tunnels were soundproof so we did not draw attention to ourselves but boy did we have some fun. Michael tried to kiss me so I let him and then I kissed him back. I felt bad but I had to keep up appearances. **

"**Hey Sarah, what is that bracelet on your wrist?" Patrick asked me.**

"**Oh it was a birthday gift from my friend before I was blooded. I keep it on because I like it. I hope you do not mind me wearing it" I explained.**

"**Oh right, it looks really pretty. Is that diamonds hanging off of it?" Patrick asked.**

"**Yes and the blue stones are sapphires" then I went on to say**

"**It was a birthday present for my eighteenth" I lied.**

"**Cool, hey guys check out Sarah's bracelet" Patrick said.**

**The entire troupe admired it, George said that I was welcome to wear it and he gave me his crest to wear which was nice, he gave me a necklace that had two snakes entwined on it, they had ruby eyes and a few emeralds surrounded the engraving which was on platinum. **

**I of course thanked George, it made me feel like the vampaneze trusted me and to wear the crest of the leader as well was a good sign. This is what I wanted them to do. The troupe was playing right into my hands and they did not even realise it. **

**A few nights went by and I left the tunnels to go hunting. Or at least that is what I told George. In actual fact I was meeting the Generals to discuss tactics. I did go hunting as well but after the meeting had finished. At the meeting we discussed how things were progressing and whether it was time for me to ask about the big boss in charge of all vampaneze. Larten turned up to my great and very welcome surprise. The Generals had planned it that way as a reward for all of my work. **

"**Evening you lot. What is the news from the sewers?" Larten asked.**

"**I have got in with the troupe, they think I am great. The cloak ploy worked and the leader of the troupe George has given me his crest." I said.**

"**Well that is good news. Let's see his crest. It may mean something." Larten said.**

**I took off my necklace and I handed it over. **

"**Entwined snakes, that means that George is tricky and he is also a slippery customer, the ruby eyes mean that he is watching you and he is not dumb and the emeralds show off his wealth. He has you in his coils in other words and he is not about to let you go, be careful with this one my love" Larten said.**

"**Ok, that is an interesting reading I did not know any of that" I said.**

"**Well your bracelet means love, trust and being together for as long as we can be. The sapphires mean trust and the diamonds mean love and togetherness. The inscription is my way of showing you how I feel" Larten explained.**

"**That is quite different to the inscription on the necklace, it just says the word "Mine" " I explained. **

"**That is because George is possessive and controlling. Watch your back darling" Larten said.**

"**Very well, I hope this information is useful to you all. Right now I have to hunt and return to the sewers but thank you so much for everything and Larten I will be in touch soon I swear" I said as I hugged Larten and as he held me he kissed me hard because we knew that we would not be together for quite a while. **

**I returned to the sewers with a few pigeons. There was no countryside around so I had to manage with the city pigeons. They were ok when they had been cooked but we did not want them too often because some of them may have carried disease and they did not have much meat on them anyway. **

**I left the sewers with George's permission and I went to the freak show. George had told me that in order to find the vampaneze boss I had to find Mr Tall who would direct me to Mr Tiny who was the only person who knew where the vampaneze boss lived, he was apparently fifteen or sixteen and his name was Steve Leopard.**

**I went to the freak show and I tried to get back stage but the guard would not let me pass. **

"**Let me in, I have to see Larten he is my boyfriend" I said to the guard.**

"**Not without a back stage pass" The guard said.**

"**Fine I will phone him and I will tell him to tell you to let me pass" I said.**

"**Ok, go on then" The guard said annoyed.**

**I dialled Larten's number and I said to him;**

"**Hello darling I am at the freak show at the back stage gate but the guard will not let me pass. Can you come and sort it please?" **

"**Ok I will be there in a moment. Bye" Larten replied, then he hung up and about a minute later he appeared by my side in his usual red blur.**

"**Let my girlfriend in Rob, I blooded her myself and she wears my crest" Larten said to the guard.**

"**Sorry, I was only doing my job. Feel free to pass" Rob said and he stood aside so I could go through the gate. **

"**You may need this" Said Larten and he put a back stage pass around my neck.**

"**Thank you dear. I need to find Mr Tall because I have to find Mr Tiny. A vampaneze that I am staying with told me that Mr Tiny knows where the big vampaneze boss lives" I explained.**

"**Ok, I am due on stage in a minute; you can help me with the show. I need you to let Madam Octa spin a web over your mouth so that she can swing from me to you and back again" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right ok then, how is she?" I asked.**

"**Madam Octa is fine; she is eating her dinner at the moment in my trailer. I gave her a large cricket so she will be finishing that off" Larten said as we headed to his trailer. We walked in and sure enough Madam Octa was on the table top eating a cricket, well she was drinking its juices anyway. **

"**I need to find Mr Tiny. I am planning to go and find him alone because you have the shows to perform" I said.**

"**Absolutely not, I forbid it because Mr Tiny is dangerous. He wants revenge on me for what I did to his daughter Lady Evanna. He is likely to kill you. Mr Tall is ok though, he hates Mr Tiny and he loathes vampaneze so you will be safe with him" Larten said.**

"**What did you do to Mr Tiny's daughter?" I asked tentatively.**

"**About seventy years ago I went to visit Lady Evanna at her home with some of my friends. I got very drunk and I tried to kiss her. Lady Evanna gave me the scar that is on my cheek in revenge and I gave her one back so now Mr Tiny wants revenge on me. Now do you understand why you cannot go alone? I would have to come with you to guard you as it is dangerous and Mr Tiny has all many of creatures around him, rumours say that he has a wolf pack that he sends out to attack intruders" Larten explained to me.**

"**Of course I understand. If I had known I would not have suggested it. Do you think Lady Evanna would help me if I asked her? I would not mention you to her or who I am" I asked.**

"**You would never find her, Lady Evanna is a witch and she can disguise herself as anything from a bird to a blade of grass in the African savannah, good luck trying to track her down" Larten said.**

"**Oh, I guess we had better do the show and then ask Mr Tall for help" I suggested.**

"**Yes I agree, you can scoop up Madam Octa now she has finished eating I am sure she will not mind" Larten said so I scooped her up and I stroked her whilst we waited to go on stage and perform.**

**Because it was my first ever show I was nervous but I had Larten by my side so that gave me courage to perform. We stepped on stage and we saw a rather small audience. **

**Larten did his usual warning speech about how dangerous Madam Octa was and then he started doing his routine with her. I stood still most of the time whilst I waited for my big moment, then it came. Madam Octa scurried up my leg and she paused, then she climbed up onto my face and she began to spin her web. She let herself dangle and then she swung and leapt up into the air onto Larten's hand, she scurried up his arm and then she did the same thing but this time she leapt onto my chest as my hand was not quite big enough to catch her then she crawled down my leg and back into her wooden cage and that was it, our act was over. We got a standing ovation which was unexpected so we vaulted upwards and did a couple of acrobatic tricks and then we exited even though the crowd were calling for an encore.**

"**Well done Madam Octa, you performed perfectly. Shall we give them an encore?" Larten asked.**

**The spider put one leg up as if to say yes so we all went back on stage and we gave the crowd a dazzling display of speed and agility including one very dangerous move which involved me vaulting upwards, hand standing on Larten's shoulders and then catching Madam Octa on my feet. It worked and the audience were stunned. Then we let the next act go on because we had got the audience warmed up. **

"**Sarah you were brilliant, I had no idea at your talents, you have never performed and the crowd wanted an encore which is something that we never get so you have to be a part of the act now" Larten said to me as we went back to his trailer.**

"**Wow I never expected that and Madam Octa was amazing. I cannot believe that the crowd wanted an encore either. I am so pleased; I expect Mr Tall will be pleased also" I said.**

"**I expect so, anyway lets go and rest now because I am starving, you hungry dear?" Larten asked.**

"**I am a bit thirsty, I need a feed but I am not hungry as such." I said.**

"**Ok, let's go for a feed then. I will put Madam Octa to bed and then we will go" Larten said as he unlocked his trailer. **

**We went inside and Larten put Madam Octa into her terrarium which was a lot bigger than her wooden travel cage, she had things to climb up and a tunnel to go into, she scurried under her log when she was put inside and that was where she slept on a bit of straw and her own webbing. **

**We then left for a feed as we had not fed together for a long time. I fed passively so Larten brought me back a flask full of blood which I drained and then we kissed in a way that we could share blood also. I had not done it before and it was quite fun. It could be quite messy but Larten was experienced, he knew what to do so I let him take then lead with our blood sharing kiss. **

"**That was interesting; I have never done that before or even thought about it" I said.**

"**I figured that it was about time that we did that. You will not have done it before unless you have kissed anyone else and not told me about it which would make me very upset" Larten explained.**

"**I have never, ever been unfaithful to you but one of the vampaneze that I am staying with did try it on. He kissed me but I pushed him back first and then when he insisted, so as not to look suspicious I let him kiss me but only for a brief moment. I had to do it to keep up my disguise as a rogue vampiress, I could not say that I was with you because you are supposed to be dead, that is what I told them when I took your cloak with me. I do not believe that is being unfaithful to you" I explained.**

"**Oh well I see your predicament there, that is not being unfaithful because you did not do it deliberately, he came onto you and if you did it for no other reason than what you have explained then it is fine but try not to encourage that sort of behaviour" Larten responded. **

"**I am not trying to encourage it; in fact I am trying to get the information so that I can get out of there and back home to our hayloft where we belong" I said.**

"**I believe you darling, you do not have to justify yourself to me, besides no vampaneze could match my skills, no one can do what I can do to you. When I do those things to you I do it because I know you love it" Larten said.**

"**I know that, I am getting pretty up for it actually. We need to make the most of our opportunities" I said. **

"**I agree but my trailer is not big enough. I only have a single coffin in there. We will have to do it in the field or flit somewhere" Larten explained.**

"**Very well, let's flit somewhere, you must know of a place" I said.**

"**I know of several places that we can go. There is an abandoned house that I bought and took over; I turned it into a private refuge for myself and my partner if I have one. It has all the modern conveniences but it is out of the way and as I own it we can go there" Larten explained. **

"**Ok it sounds cool. Where is it?" I asked.**

"**It is about an hour's flit so it is quite a long way away but it is well worth it if you can flit for that long" Larten said.**

"**That is nothing. I will let you lead the way as you know where you are going. I have no idea" I said.**

**At that point we left for one of Larten's secret houses. I assumed that it would be a normal house with a vampiric style of decorating but in fact it was huge! A twenty three bed roomed manor house with land and stables attached to it. **

**It took me and hour and ten minutes to get there, I followed Larten's blur the whole way, being clad in red he was easy to spot and follow. I got there and Larten let us both in. **

**I switched on the light and I found myself standing in a grand entrance hall with everything in it, there were two staircases leading upwards and a long passage that lead to the other rooms like the library and the living room. **

**It was the biggest house I had been in apart from a stately manor that my parents had taken me to once to attend my cousin's wedding but this did not compare. **

**We headed into the main lounge room where there was a real log fire and plenty of chairs and sofas to sit on; there was a big flat screen TV and even a cordless phone. The best thing was the three seated sofa that was big enough to sleep on because it had a pull out bed attached to it and it was certainly big enough to make out on which is exactly what I had wanted. I lay down on it; I had already stripped off so Larten did the same. We used a duvet and a blanket to cover us and then we used the sofa for its purpose and we made out without stopping or thinking about it we just did it, the velvet sofa material caressed my skin as I moved back and forth along it and Larten touched me in every way he could to keep me excited. It felt good to have skin on skin and soft material to snuggle up in whilst we made out, we tried a couple of new positions and we tried to make it last for as long as possible so that we got the maximum amount of feeling from it. **

**After a couple of hours of making out we decided to really get deep and without warning Larten entered me and he made me gasp because he was really going all out. I had not known him to be like this so I held on tight and did my utmost to enjoy it. We were so deep into it that our bodies became one in a sense. We were moving and breathing in sync until I decided to get rough, then the biting and scratching began, I ran my nails down Larten's back and I gave him a love bite, which he returned before he pumped his fluids into me, he ran his nails down my chest as he was on top and as he pumped his fluids into me we did a rocking motion to ensure maximum feeling. I could not make any noise because we were kissing so much; I wanted to make noise though because it was so powerful. Larten went as deep as he could; he rolled over so that I was on top. I rocked and I got to the point of no return and then I let myself go, I got Larten to finish me off and then I writhed in sheer excitement, I moved so that I slid up and down the silk duvet cover so as to feel everything that was being done to my body. **

**I loved it, I loved Larten so much and to have him do to me what he had just done was the best bit about our relationship although spending time with him was great too. When Larten had completed what he was doing to me he said;**

"**So are you satisfied? I hope that was ok for you, it was one of my better performances."**

"**I could not ask for anything better, I only hope that you can keep on performing like that so that I will always be satisfied" I replied.**

"**I have never done it like that before, my ex-girlfriends could not handle it like that and Arra always had to be in charge, she was dominating and quite rough, at least you let me do what I am trying to achieve before you take the lead" Larten said. **

"**Well when it's that good why should I stop you?" I asked.**

"**You should not stop me, you should lay there and let it happen, and I do my best for you and obviously being over a hundred helps" Larten said.**

"**Well considering the fact that I was a virgin when we met I think I have done pretty well to learn what to do and how to perform for you" I said.**

"**I agree, anyway we had better seek out Mr Tall, I guess that you cannot be away from the scumbags for too long" Larten said.**

"**Regrettably yes I have to return to the scumbag troupe soon but not until I have the information that I need" I said. **

**We flitted back to the circus grounds at that point; I had to find Mr Tall so that Larten and I could find Mr Tiny and therefore sort out what needed to be sorted out.**

**We found Mr Tall; he was in his own trailer reading a newspaper when I knocked on the door.**

"**Who is it?" barked a voice from inside the door.**

"**It is Larten and Sarah, we need some advice" I said.**

"**Come on in then my friends, I can read my paper later" said the voice from inside the door.**

**We entered Mr Tall's trailer and he pointed to a sofa which we both sat on. I was shaking so Larten held my hand. **

"**Now my vampire friends, what can I do for you both? I was very impressed with your performance earlier, you got a standing ovation and an encore I heard, that is our first ever one so well done to both of you" Mr Tall said.**

"**Well I need to know where to find Mr Tiny, he knows where the vampaneze leader is, if I find him and kill him then I can prevent a war; we need your help because we both know how much you hate both vampaneze and Mr Tiny" I explained.**

"**Well Mr Tiny is a tricky character, he moves constantly. It is hard to pin him down to one spot. You will be happy to know that the supposed wolf pack that he has is a myth. I have never seen any such creatures. The last time that I saw him he was at the mountains playing around with the Book of Souls, trying to bring about the apocalypse but so far he has not succeeded, that has angered him, he has tried for years to cause the apocalypse but he is missing something and he does not know what it is and neither do I but one thing is for sure, you do not want to get on the wrong side of him as Larten will tell you" Mr Tall said.**

"**Well where is the best place to look?" I asked.**

"**Try Venice or better yet try the past, Mr Tiny travels back and forth through time and he has the power to change history so be warned" Mr Tall said. **

"**Ok, he is one freaky character" I said.**

"**Yes but he has his purpose. His purpose is unclear to us now but he was put here for a reason" Larten said.**

"**Well thank you for your information, I am sure that I will find him at some point" I said.**

"**You mean we will find him, anyway one thing I do know is that he travels with reanimated, soulless corpses called "Little People" and he has a purple limousine, so if we find that we find him" Larten said.**

"**That narrows it down somewhat. We had better start searching, thank you so much Mr Tall, you have been most informative" I said and we both left. **

**I heard Mr Tall call out;**

"**You're welcome" As we left and then as the sun was coming up we both went to bed as we had a big night ahead of us.**

**Chapter 15 the Search for Mr Tiny**

**I looked out of the trailer window; the sky was yellow and pinkish red where the sun was setting. I got dressed and I fed Madame Octa before I fixed my breakfast whilst I waited for Larten to wake up. I did not wish to wake him up myself, because he was holding me close when I got up he moved when I did. **

**I had the remnants of a chicken pie to eat and some cereal for breakfast. It was not much but it was enough for me. I fixed Larten's breakfast of sausage and beans as that was what he had asked me to make so I took it to him, he was still asleep but the smell woke him up and after he was dressed we packed up our travel bags and flitted off to town where we could begin our search. **

**I phoned George and I explained to him the situation and he stopped by to see me briefly, Larten had flitted ahead so as not to be seen. **

"**You smell of vampire and human food" George said.**

"**I killed another vampire and when I fed last I raided the kitchen cupboard for food, I was so hungry George. I need a shower and a change of clothes." I explained.**

"**Yeah you do, anyway have you found our boss yet?" George asked.**

"**No, not as yet but I am looking forward to meeting him. He sounds really cool" I said.**

"**Steve is a great guy if you are on his side, he is so kind and caring towards us but to vampires he is cruel and he can be really evil at times" George said.**

"**Well thanks for the heads up George; I will see you guys soon. Call me if you hear anything. You have my number" I said. I hugged George and then I left to catch up with Larten who was already ten miles ahead of me. **

**I caught up with Larten and we continued our journey to the town centre. I was so glad to be travelling with Larten again, our bond was unbreakable. No one could separate us, not even the vampaneze scumbags who we were trying to destroy. **

"**I can smell vampaneze everywhere, they must have been here before, and can you smell it?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes the air is definitely foul, what do we do?" I asked.**

"**Well if we bump into any we kill them or better yet you talk to them and tell them about George and I will flit ahead and kill any that I find" Larten said.**

"**Good plan, I think that they must have either met here or had a camp here, you can see the holes where tent pegs were" I said.**

"**Very observant of you, we had best get out of here quickly then in case they return" Larten warned me so we left at a top flitting speed to cover as much ground as possible. **

**We reached the town and we holed up in an abandoned warehouse, it was damp and cold but it was safe from the sun and from potential enemies.**

**We had to think of a strategy for finding Mr Tiny and then it came to me. If we could track down where the purple limo had been sold then we could find out where Mr Tiny had ordered it from and if we found that out we may have found him. **

"**I think I have a plan to find Mr Tiny" I said.**

"**Oh? What is it dear?" Larten asked interested.**

"**Well he has a modern limo so if we find out where it was sold then we can find out where he is by asking people if they have seen one. Also we can track it down because it has to have tax and insurance, for that you need an address, find the address and we may find him." I suggested.**

"**Good thinking darling, I never would have thought of that. It is so simple but so clever" Larten said.**

"**I will make a few phone calls and I will contact the DVLA for some information, I mean how many purple limos are there in Britain?" I said.**

"**Excellent idea but now let us play cards, I am bored, and I am not tired either" Larten said.**

"**Ok then honey, let's play cribbage for cash" I suggested.**

"**I have no cash on me dearest; I have only my empty wallet. We can play for ale and blood instead" Larten explained.**

"**Very well, if you had told me I would have taken some money out, I still have my credit card, and it is not maxed out yet" I said. **

"**Anyway, let us play, I bet you a half pint of ale that you have fifteen two and a pair" Larten said.**

"**Wrong, I have fifteen four and a pair" I said as I showed my hand.**

"**Here you go then, a half pint is yours" Larten said and he handed it over.**

**I downed it and then I made my bet.**

"**I bet you one flask of blood that you have the usual eight including a run of three" I said.**

"**Wrong I have only two pairs" Larten said so I handed over my flask of blood. **

**We continued playing until we had almost run out of supplies. We had to keep some for the journey so we stopped playing, we played chess afterwards, and it was fun but taxing. Chess is not that easy to play, it is as much about strategy as it is about moving the pieces. **

**We played chess until it was very late in the day. We left the abandoned building and we went shopping. I had to buy new clothes and more food. Larten needed a couple of things as well so we went together. We had never shopped together before and the town centre was packed, the carnival was in town so we got stuck in crowds but we managed to get through them so that we could shop. **

**I had a list of items to buy that was;**

**Milk,**

**Bread,**

**Cheese,**

**Razor blades,**

**New trousers,**

**New socks,**

**New underwear,**

**A pack of batteries,**

**A bulb for my lantern,**

**A new gas refill for the camping stove,**

**A pair of waterproof shoes,**

**A new flask, mine was leaking**

**Larten's list was quite a bit shorter but his stuff was expensive, he needed;**

**Thermal socks,**

**A metal water bottle,**

**A new watch,**

**A compass as his was cracked,**

**A sheath for his dagger,**

**And finally a new rucksack as his was old and it was too small to carry everything in it. **

**We both needed phone credit so I got that and I also picked up a travel charger so that we could charge our phones on the go. The sheath for Larten's dagger was a specialist item that we had to go to the Army Outfitters for, Larten used his dagger as a gutting knife for fish and rabbits, he also used it to skin them with, and it was an important tool to have. **

**We spent roughly two hundred pounds in town and it all went on my card. I knew that I would have to pay it off when I had the money but not until the end of the month. **

**I also put together a medical box which contained modern items that were sterile. It had bandages, plasters, scissors, a burn kit, a sling, lint gauze, surgical tape and safety pins. I also put together a box of medicines for headaches and other ailments. It was important to get stuff while you could in case you had to go a long way away from the nearest town where it was not available. **

**I made a few phone calls in the morning and I tracked down the limo seller to Birmingham which was miles out from where we were, we were near Surrey so we had a long way to travel. Flitting there would not take long but there was not really an easy way to go. The simplest route was on the motorway but we could not flit on a motorway so we got a bus instead. It took ages but when we arrived we were able to get out of the sun as there were no shortage of abandoned and condemned houses to chooses from, not that I wanted to stay in one for any length of time. **

**The bus had curtains which we had pulled to keep the sun off of us, we had arrived at lunchtime and it was a blazing hot day so we ran for cover and we found it in the form of a condemned apartment, it had been burnt out but the roof was on it still, we found a room where the fire damage was not quite so bad and we slept there on a pile of blankets and camping mattresses until it was dark outside. **

**I had found out where the limo had been sold so I had an appointment there to see the manager. I covered myself in clothes and sun block and I wore extra strong sunglasses as my defence from the lethal rays before I ventured outside in the heat to the office. **

**I was sweating buckets because it was so hot outside, I had a fleece on and trousers to cover my skin and it was torture, I felt like the sun was leeching my energy and cooking me at the same time. **

**I was lucky that the office was out of the sun and that there was a water machine, I was very dehydrated by the time that I arrived. The fresh water in the machine made me a lot better, I had needed it. **

**After speaking to the lady behind the desk, I saw some photographs of the limo, they matched Mr Tiny's limo but of course when he had bought it he had used a disguise and a fake address. There were tax and MOT records but no insurance papers so I had to speak to the local garages and the tax office to see what information they had on the mysterious purple limo. **

**As luck would have it the limos was due for a clean and a service the next day and Mr Desmond Tiny would be dropping the car off at noon to be serviced, cleaned, waxed and have its MOT done. I spoke to the garage owner and he recognised Mr Tiny in the photo that I had of him but he said that he had not been seen for a while. **

**I rushed back to tell Larten the news, he was quite impressed at my detective work but of course Larten was not looking forward to going with me to the garage the next day to confront him with me. **

**We did not sleep very well that day, getting up at noon for us was the same as a human rising at midnight, it was hard to do and we were tired but we managed it. **

**We covered ourselves in maximum strength sun block and we wrapped up well, the luck of the vampires must have been with us though because when I looked out of the condemned house's window I saw that it was raining hard and the sky was a deep grey colour, the sun was nowhere to be seen so we put our waterproofs on and we left for the garage that was in the next street. **

**As we arrived Mr Tiny pulled up in his limo and his chauffeur got out and he held an umbrella over Mr Tiny's head so that he did not get wet, the poor chauffeur got soaked to the bone in his non waterproof uniform however.**

**Larten and I waited for Mr Tiny to go inside and then we followed him in to the waiting room. When he sat down we went over to him.**

"**Mr Tiny, my name is Sarah, I need to find the vampaneze boss, and can you help me?" I asked, I was petrified of the strange, straggly looking man.**

"**You are asking me to help you find the vampaneze boss? Well let me think for a moment. I am not telling you vampiress scum anything, now get lost before I turn you into a woodlouse." Mr Tiny said.**

"**I do not think that is a very nice way to talk to my girlfriend Sir, now apologise." Larten said as he appeared by my side with his sword drawn. **

**Lucky that the waiting room was devoid of humans, otherwise it could have been messy.**

"**I am not apologising to any of you scum. You do not deserve to live after what you did to my perfect daughter Evanna" Mr Tiny said.**

"**That was like seventy years ago, we have moved on why can you not do the same Sir?" I asked.**

"**He scarred my daughter, she is disfigured now. He should die because of that" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Well Evanna scarred Larten first, look at the mark he has on his cheek" I said.**

"**Larten should not have tried it on then should he?" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Well Lady Evanna should not have got Larten drunk and then bewitched him with her beauty then, she was asking for it" I replied.**

"**I see, Evanna did not mention that part. It makes no difference though; I am still not going to help you find Steve" Mr Tiny said abruptly. **

"**Fine, have it your way. Come on dear we have wasted enough time here. I am gagging for a feed" I said.**

"**As you wish my love" Larten replied.**

"**I see you have taken another girlfriend. How many is that now? Twenty thirty? You must be running out of blood" Mr Tiny laughed cruelly.**

"**Actually, Sarah is my third vampiress girlfriend, I made her myself and she wears my crest with honour, she wanted me badly. I could not deny her what so many ladies beg me for" Larten explained.**

"**You are not as bad as some of the other vampires then. They go around with no concern for anyone blooding random humans and then they will not be responsible if something goes wrong" Mr Tiny explained. **

"**Seba taught me well Sir; I know what makes a good vampiress." Larten said.**

"**Sarah what are the three main purposes of being a vampiress?" Mr Tiny asked me.**

"**The three vows are to live for the Clan, to fight for the Clan and to die for the Clan, also to increase numbers because we cannot breed" I answered.**

"**Very good, who are the Princes?" Mr Tiny asked.**

"**Mika Ver Leth, Paris Skyle, Vancha March, Darren Shan, Arrow and there would have been Kurda Smalt but the bastard betrayed us" I said.**

"**You know your stuff Sarah. You look like a proper vampiress, where are your scars?" Mr Tiny asked me.**

"**On my fingertips" I said as I held up my hands to show off my scars.**

"**Those scars look tiny" Mr Tiny replied.**

"**Larten saved my life. He killed a rabid bear just before it killed me, I was seriously hurt but I survived because of Larten's skills" I explained.**

"**Very well, you have proven to me that you belong in the Clan but I will not help you destroy my chances of causing a beautiful war between your two clans. I live for war" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Ok, I will track down every vampaneze and eventually I will find who I am looking for" I said.**

"**I doubt it, Steve is well protected. You have no hope. Bye now and Larten for the record next time you choose to try it on with Evanna whether she led you on or not do not attempt it" Mr Tiny warned.**

"**I have no need, Sarah gives me everything I want, and you have no idea what you are missing out on" Larten replied. **

"**Maybe I should sleep with your girlfriend and find out one time" Mr Tiny laughed.**

"**Try it and you die!" Larten threatened.**

"**Me sleep with a vampiress? No way! Vampanesses are so much better in bed. You have not lived until you have had a vampaness in your coffin Larten" Mr Tiny said as he got up to leave.**

"**I think I will stick to my own blood group thank you. Sarah is amazing; you cannot imagine what she can do to me and what I do to her to make her think that she has endured sheer, vampiric love and lust" Larten said as he looked deeply into my eyes. **

"**Yes, you cannot begin to imagine what it feels like to do what we do to each other" I said.**

"**What does it feel like then Sarah? Describe it to me as I am curious" Mr Tiny said.**

"**It is indescribable, you have to experience it to understand it, the power of it, the way we move and become one body that is joined together and every touch feels like paradise, it is so gentle but so powerful, you feel like you have touched the sky and that you are flying because you feel so much of it" I explained.**

"**I see, it sounds like you are a professional Larten, you know how to use a vampiresses' body to maximum effect" Mr Tiny said.**

"**It has taken years to perfect my skills and my art. That is what sex is, it is an art form as well as a skill. I mean to make a vampiress feel like she is touching the sky and flying but at the same time she is still on the ground is no mean feat. I can help a vampiress enter paradise whilst still being alive and I aim to make every touch count by using minimum force in order to cause maximum excitement. That is sheer skill. It is a skill which I have been blessed with" Larten said. **

"**I see now, you are very lucky Sarah. Anyway I have to dash; I have an apocalypse to prepare for" Mr Tiny said. **

**Then Mr Tiny left in his newly cleaned limo and we also left.**

"**That was not as bad as I thought; it is a pity that we did not get much information though" I said.**

"**Yes but at least Mr Tiny did not exact his revenge on me for Evanna. It was clever of you to distract him like that" Larten said.**

"**I was not trying to distract him; I was trying to get him to talk so that I could get information from him" I said.**

"**I see, you are so clever to do both things" Larten said as we headed to our temporary bed, we were tired and hot, also I wanted Larten to make me enter paradise as it felt so good and I needed something to look forward to when I curled up next to the guy that I loved dearly and cared for deeply.**

**I lay down next to Larten and he pulled me close to him. We kissed first then when Larten had finished warming me up he went in for the kill. Larten did things to me that I had never experienced, he caressed my body and every inch of me tingled, he kissed me and he worked his way down my body until he was between my legs, he licked me and he made me shake, he came on top of me and we entwined our bodies like two snakes that were coiled around each other and then we rolled over and over again as one entity, all the time Larten was putting his fluids inside me, I could feel it shooting through me and it made me feel his every touch, we kissed non-stop and it was deep, so deep that I could have choked but Larten knew exactly where to put his tongue so I could get the maximum sensation from it without going too deep into me. **

**I felt like paradise was getting closer, I was tingling and I was shaking. I was getting excited, Larten was slowing down but everything was getting more powerful, I knew that this time was going to be mind blowing so I lay still and I let Larten work his magic on me. He slowed down so that I could feel what he was doing, he was kissing me and he was running his hands all over me, he was still inside me and he was still pumping his fluid into my body, I was moving and writhing to get closer to him, I wanted more so I had to be as close to him as I could possibly be so that I could get maximum sensation in order to make me have an orgasm so powerful that it would feel like an explosion of fluids inside me that would cause us to get a feeling that would make us both think that we had entered paradise whilst still being alive and able to feel everything that we were doing to each other. **

**When we normally made out it was usually quiet but not this time, I was breathing hard and I was begging for the sensation never to end as it was so good, we rolled over a couple more times and then the orgasm finally hit me and I gasped, it was so powerful I felt like I could not breathe, I just lay there and I let the sensation carry me away whilst I could still feel Larten on top of me kissing me, he was still inside of me and he stayed there until the orgasm ended. We kissed and then we stopped, then I lay in Larten's arms and he held me close to him whilst we recovered, it had sapped all of our energy, it had been hours but it was well worth it in the end to achieve an orgasm at such a high level that we could both feel and enjoy.**

**When we eventually awoke we were curled up together and I was extremely drained and tired. I did not want to move, I was happy to be wrapped up under a camping duvet with a silk cover, Larten's cloak and a pillow on an air mattress. We would have slept vampire style but we needed to be comfortable in order to let our muscles recover from what we had done to each other. **

"**Morning dear, how do you feel?" Larten asked me.**

"**I feel like I have been taken to the peak of orgasm and that you made it sensual but unforgettable, you took me to a place that I never thought I could enter, you made my head spin and my heart beat so much I could feel it, it was the best that I have ever felt and you let me experience true paradise and what it feels like to be as one with somebody who you love." I replied.**

"**I felt the same but my experience was different being male, pumping you full of my fluids was for me a release, it strengthens our bond and it makes me feel like we are one entity and for a brief time I believe that our very souls join together and we share the same soul, I feel like we have been forever bonded and it is impossible to separate us." Larten answered. **

"**I feel that as well, anyway we have business to attend to. We must find the vampaneze boss, it is imperative." I said whilst I yawned.**

"**I agree, you had better go back to the sewers, you have been away for days" Larten said.**

"**I will call George and I will tell him what has happened. He will not mind me being away if he thinks that I am doing stuff for the troupe" I explained. **

"**Very well, we need to feed. I am thirsty and you need to keep your strength up" Larten reminded me.**

"**I know darling, I am pretty thirsty so let's go hunting" I suggested, so we did and we had a good feed which both of us needed. **

**I called George and I explained to him what Mr Tiny had said, George told me to search the inner city areas, abandoned buildings, office blocks, council estates and any empty or disused sewage system or underground network. That was where Steve (if that was his real name) was likely to be.**

**I thanked George for his additional information and then I set off again, this time I was on my own as Larten had a show. I had to begin my search for Steve and I wanted so badly to put my dagger through his heart as I had done on the battlefield to his fellow vampaneze thereby stopping a war and hopefully halting Mr Tiny's apocalypse plans for the good of the whole world. **

**As I was in a big city I had miles to search and plenty of choice to choose from when it came to where I would sleep and live. I decided to get a bed and breakfast room that was in the city centre, then I could work my way to the outskirts of the city and beyond until I found who I was looking for. **

**I searched office blocks first as they had several floors and lots of hidden caches where people could hide. The abandoned office block was popular with the illegal immigrants who chose to live in it and drug dealers who used it to hide their loot in while they were out scouting for buyers. **

**I found nothing suspicious except for packages and low life humans who were trying to live on next to nothing. I searched council estates and I searched all of the old sewers and underground network tunnels. I found a couple of dodgy looking humans but they were no threat to me. **

**Mr Tiny had been right, Steve was well hidden and he was very well protected.**

**My phone went off so I answered it;**

"**Hello, who is calling?" I asked.**

"**It's Prince Vancha, how are you?" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Fine thank you Sire, I am searching the council estates for Steve. I am in the city centre, where are you?" I asked.**

"**I am miles away in rural Scotland on holiday. I am enjoying it so far but it is freezing" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**I thought that you were helping me" I said angrily.**

"**I am helping you. I am stopping the vampaneze from crossing the Scottish border because the vampaneze up here have a different jurisdiction than the ones in England. They are stronger too and faster than most" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**So you are on holiday but you are working as well, that is ok. Did you call me for a reason Sire?" I asked.**

"**Only to warn you about vampaneze crossing the border, they may try and get to Wales if they can because then they can cross to Ireland where we cannot touch them. They have a wide network Sarah so watch your back" Prince Vancha warned me.**

"**Well thanks for the heads up Sire, I will keep my eyes and ears open. Maybe we could post a guard on each border line like what you are doing. It may slow them down" I suggested. **

"**I will contact the Clan and I will ask them. It is a good idea. Watch your back, these vampaneze are vicious whether they think that you are on their side or not. Bye for now, I will be in touch" With that Prince Vancha hung up. He was using a call box so there was no point saving his number to my phone as the next time he called it would be a different number. **

**I texted Larten to let him know what Prince Vancha had said and then I continued my search for Steve. He was proving to be very elusive and I had no idea what he looked like, I was searching for a teenage boy with a lust for blood and killing humans. It was like looking for a tiny needle in a very large hay stack. **

**My next idea was to ask different gang members in case he had joined a human gang as a disguise. That was a dangerous move but what choice did I have? I had tried all of the usual things. My only other thought was that Steve was living with Evanna or she had turned him into something to hide him from us until it was too late to stop the war. **

**I was running out of time and options, I was totally stuck, I was also quite ill, I had been travelling and it had taken its toll on me, vampiress or not everyone needs to rest. I had to clear my head, I was tired and fed up of searching. I needed a break so I returned to the circus camp where I could at least put my feet up in safety. **

**I was greeted at the gates by a whole gang of performers who were glad to have me back but Larten was not there. Larten did not pick up his phone either which made me worry a little but never the less I went to our trailer and I let myself in using the key which he had given me. I fed Madam Octa and then I waited for Larten to return, he was probably hunting or having a drink in the local pub which was a popular choice for the circus performers because they were welcomed there in return for tickets to the show. **

**I put my stuff down and I put the TV on, I wanted to watch Crime Watch UK and the evening news before I went to the pub to have a well-deserved drink and a meal. **

**I was not far from a part of the city where a spate of robberies had taken place and a bank had also been broken into. It was scary to think how close we were to people who committed serious crimes. These criminals also dealt drugs and they used vulnerable women as prostitutes to get extra money to buy more drugs. **

**I walked to the pub after the programmes had finished. It was a clear night sky and I could see the stars for the first time in a while as it had been rather cloudy on previous nights. There was a new moon but as it was only a tiny slither it would take about four days before it could be used as a beacon to see by although I had excellent night vision. **

**I got to the pub and it was packed, I had to squeeze through the door in order to get in. There was a live band which everybody had turned out to see. I got a seat at the bar and I listened to the band, they were one of those teen school bands that had a bass guitar, a drum kit and two singers, they were doing covers of pop songs that they had altered slightly to give them more of a rock music sound. They were very good and at the end of their set everybody was clapping and drinking heavily. I searched the bar and I finally found Larten in the corner at a table that had a fair few empty glasses on it, he had obviously been drinking which was fine but he had drunk a lot even for a vampire. **

**I watched him down two more pints and then he stood up and he staggered to the bar for more. To my relief the barman did not serve him again so Larten had no choice but to have a soft drink instead and he had several soft drinks, they included strong coffees and a lot of energy booster drinks. Larten was on a pay night bender and he was pretty funny and very merry. He had not noticed me until I actually stood right in front of him, then he got even merrier, that is to say he was happy that he had a drinking buddy so I joined him in a quart of ale but I knew my limits unlike him. **

**We got back to our trailer and we were wasted, I had downed a bottle of vodka and a couple of bottles of white wine, I had also drunk a few cans of energy drink, I was buzzing but Larten was throwing up, he had drunk way beyond what I had ever seen him consume but it was fine once in a while and he still had a tonne of wages left, that pub was really cheap. **

**We slept in very late, I had a headache and Larten was totally out of it, he had a major hangover and he could not remember anything before I got there except for a couple of songs that had been played by the band which Larten had actually sung along to, it is strange what people do when they are drunk. I myself had sung but I did not know all of the songs as some were new and they were not in the style of music that I normally listened to. **

**I did not know a cure for hangovers so I left Larten to sleep it off. Larten was grouchy when he eventually woke up which made me laugh because it was his fault, nobody had made him drink the amount that he had done and now he was suffering for it. **

**I was ok, I had not drunk nowhere near as much as Larten, I had a bit of a headache but I did not throw up. By the time I had got up and I was properly awake I felt fine. I had something to eat and then I had to prepare for the show, it was our last one before we moved on to a new town so we had to pack everything up afterwards. **

**I took Madam Octa out and I let her stretch her eight legs. She needed some exercise so I took her to a deserted area and I let her have a good walk around, she climbed up a flag pole and she stayed on top of it for ages before she crawled back down again. I trusted her but I had to be careful, she perched on my shoulder and she stayed there for ages before she moved, I sat down and she climbed down my chest and onto my hand where she was motionless for ages until a fly buzzed past her and she struck, she caught it in mid-flight with her mouth and she made a quick meal of it. I was amazed, I did not know quite how bright this spider was, she was able to take care of herself quite nicely which was a good thing. I took her back to her terrarium after a good hour or so and I gave to her what was her favourite snack, a whole piece of pizza as a treat, she loved it and I am sure that it tasted better than insects. Madam Octa held up her two front legs towards me and she stood up on her others, it was like she was saluting me or something, she was so clever. **

**I asked Larten about it when he had recovered from his drinking session.**

"**I took Madam Octa out earlier, she had a good run around and when I put her back into her terrarium she held up her front legs and she looked like she was standing. Does it mean something?" I asked.**

"**Well that is her way of saying thank you. I taught her that when she was tiny. I guess she likes you. I bet she climbed up a flag pole, she loves to be high up, I think it is so she can see what is going on" Larten replied.**

"**Well she scrambled up a flag pole, stayed there until I called her down and then she sat in my hand. A fly flew past and she caught it and ate it on the spot. It was so cool" I replied.**

"**I taught her to catch flies like that because when I was travelling I got fed up of them buzzing around me" Larten explained. **

"**That is pretty smart" I replied. **

"**Well I had to think of some way to stop flies from landing on me and biting me, any creature who feeds on me ends up like me but a super-fast, extra strong fly is one thing that I do not want around for obvious reasons" Larten explained.**

"**That makes sense, flies can be annoying at the best of times but a fly with vampire blood in it would be very annoying" I agreed. **

"**That is one possible reason why that bear attacked you, maybe it had eaten a vampire corpse or a vampaneze corpse and it went mad, it looked like it had rabies but quite often animals that eat vampire corpses or drink our blood by accident look like that. I have seen it a few times but never in a bear like that, that was very dangerous for all concerned" Larten said.**

"**I am glad that I survived, killing it was probably the best thing that you could have done for it" I said. **

"**I had no option; I had to make a split second decision to save you and to protect others who were using the same path" Larten said. **

"**I agree, anyway have you recovered yet? You drank a lot last night. In fact you drank so much that nobody could believe it, it must have been a record" I asked.**

"**I am fine now but I will not be drinking again like that for a while, it was pretty fun though. It is nice to have a carefree night of freedom occasionally. I love my life but every so often I need to be able to let my rather short hair down as it were" Larten said. **

"**Fair enough, the band was good but I think that they were freaked out a little by some of us. I guess that they had not performed to a crowd like ours" I said.**

"**I guess not but everybody liked them, it was a great way to spend my pay night, I see that you had a good time too. I hope that you are ok" Larten enquired.**

"**I am fine, I did not drink a lot, I stuck to energy drinks to keep going all night long, and we did not finish partying until midday" I explained.**

"**Was it that late? I had no idea" Larten said.**

"**Yes we stayed up all night and when we went back to the trailer the sun was beating down on us, it was quite a hot day. I am glad that we did not stay any longer than we did, it was a scorcher of a day" I said.**

"**At least we have a clear night to perform in, have you prepared for the show?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes, I have packed up too because we are moving on tonight, except I will have to start searching for Steve again soon" I said looking upset at the thought of leaving Larten again.**

"**It is time for the show soon, as long as you have prepared everything it should be fine. It is a shame that you have to continue your search for Steve. I wish that you could stay with the circus, the crowds love you" Larten said.**

"**I know but orders are orders, I cannot let the Clan down can I dear?" I asked.**

"**No, you are correct, you must follow your orders and I must stay and perform but we will be together again soon, have no doubt of that" Larten reassured me.**

"**I know, I just hate leaving you, it is really hard on me, to think that I have to live in a sewer with a troupe of enemies and play the part of a vampaneze supporter makes me mad but I have no choice" I said ruefully. **

"**You do a good job though and it will not be for long. We will soon be back in our hayloft where we belong. I have some holiday time soon anyway so we can go away if you like, I know of a great destination" Larten said.**

"**Oh? Where is that?" I asked interested.**

"**I will tell you nearer the time, but it is a great place, vampire friendly and not a vampaneze in sight" Larten replied.**

"**Sounds like a great spot for a holiday. I will look forward to it" I said.**

"**It is quite expensive though, we will have to save up" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right ok, I have a fair bit of money, anyway we are due on stage soon. We had best get into position" I said as we left for the stage door. **

**Being the last night before we moved on we had a huge crowd to perform for, we had all of the pub staff in as well as the regular audience. **

**Tonight Larten and I were on first, we did a different routine to normal as it was the last night, we wanted to give the crowd something to remember. We had one difference because normally we were introduced as;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen may I present Mr Crepsley with his spider Madam Octa and his assistant Sarah." but tonight Mr Tall introduced us as;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mr Crepsley, his girlfriend and assistant Sarah and their spider Madam Octa"**

**Why Mr Tall had changed the introduction was odd considering that the regular one was fine but as usual we performed to perfection. We did a trapeze act with a few gymnastics moves, then we performed with the spider, tonight Madam Octa danced and she did a bit of a weight lifting act which was a new bit that Larten had only recently taught her but she did her best to get it right and do the right bit in the right place. **

**After we had finished our act we went and sat down in the performers' box to watch the rest of the show, we had not seen the new acts so it was quite entertaining to watch them perform their tricks and stunts.**

**As it was the last show before we moved on we did a question and answer session, it was something to do with getting a good reputation and good PR so that we would have more audiences which meant more money for us and a better outlook on life for those who had nothing. **

**Mr Tall was good with the public, we had set up a long table and chairs and everybody sat at it and took questions from the audience. It was quite fun actually. I enjoyed it, even the Wolfman sat down and let people stroke him if they wanted to, he was sort of hypnotised but trained as well, it was freaky. **

**We got a lot of people asking about Madam Octa's origin and where people could get a spider like her, also we had people wishing to hold her which we could not permit due to safety reasons but we did let certain people stroke her if they seemed to be worthy. Madam Octa chose people by holding her leg up and almost pointing to people, she was well aware of who she could allow to touch her as she could sense their intentions before they came near her, she got a positive response from the audience, the crowd all said how clever and how remarkably pretty she was.**

**We did get a few hard questions, some we could not answer as we did not know but it was the teenage girls who were the best, and they put Larten on the spot. Some of their queries were quite embarrassing. **

**One very sick girl asked if she could have something of Larten's as a keepsake and as a lucky charm to remind her of the show but Larten had nothing on him to give to her so he asked me;**

"**What do I do dear? I can see how much she is a fan of mine. I have nothing to give to her but as she is so sick she needs some sort of good memory to look back on"**

"**Well there is one thing that you could give which would be very special given the circumstances, you could kiss her" I suggested in a whisper.**

"**You would not mind?" Larten asked me.**

"**This girl is very sick, her mother says that she needs a kidney transplant, she may not live much longer so maybe you could give her something that she will never forget" I said.**

"**Very well in these circumstances, I think that is acceptable" Larten said.**

"**Ladies and gentlemen, this lady is very sick, she may die and as she is a fan of mine I cannot let her leave here with nothing. I have decided to give her something unique that she will never forget" Larten said.**

"**Thank you so much. I am shaking like a leaf" The girl said, she really was struggling to stand as she was so nervous and excited. **

"**What is your name?" Larten asked.**

"**Jodie, I need a kidney transplant. I am very sick" said the girl.**

"**I know, your mother told me. I know too how much you like horror that is why you came here tonight. Your dream is to meet a real vampire is it not Jodie?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes, I was told that they are very nice and that their blood could make me well again" Jodie said.**

"**Alas vampire blood will not cure you but I am a real vampire. So too is Sarah there" Larten said as he held up his hands to show his scars.**

"**That is so cool; I thought you were, I had a feeling. I knew that you were different somehow" Jodie said.**

"**Well tonight you have achieved your dream of meeting a real vampire and now you get a kiss from one" Larten said. **

"**Seriously you are actually going to kiss me?" Jodie asked.**

"**Yes if you wish me to, I hope that is ok" Larten said.**

"**You mean I get a real kiss from a real vampire?" Jodie asked excitedly.**

"**Yes, I thought that it would be a good memory for you" Larten said.**

"**I have never been kissed by anybody; I have no idea what I have to do" Jodie admitted.**

"**I will instruct you, I will make it worthwhile" Larten said.**

"**Very well, a real kiss from a real vampire it is" Jodie said.**

**Larten then lead Jodie by the hand to the back stage area.**

"**So this is the back stage area? It is nice" Jodie said.**

"**I thought that a private lesson was appropriate, prying eyes can be off putting." Larten explained.**

"**I see, I am still very nervous and I cannot stop shaking" Jodie said.**

"**Do not think about anything. Close your eyes and let me lead" Larten said.**

"**Ok, what happens during the kiss?" Jodie asked.**

"**Well I will enclose my mouth around yours, I will then pulse inside you slowly, you do the same and then I will finish it off" Larten explained.**

"**Pulse you mean using tongues?" Jodie asked.**

"**Yes in a manner not too much though because you could not handle it if I went too deep" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right, it sounds nice. I hope I really feel it" Jodie said as she stood closer to Larten. **

"**Believe me when I say it will be the best experience of your life so far" said Larten as he made his move. Larten then kissed Jodie deeply with his vampiric passion but not so much as to overwhelm her, he did it in the same way that he kissed me normally. **

"**That was amazing. I loved that, you were right as that was the best experience that I have had so far in my life" Jodie said.**

"**I am happy that you liked it" Larten replied.**

**When Jodie stepped out from the back stage area with Larten beside her about ten minutes later she looked so happy. **

**When Jodie could speak again and when everybody else had left I asked;**

"**How was it? Did you enjoy kissing a vampire?" **

"**It was great, Mr Crepsley held me and he kissed me, I felt like my head was spinning but I could feel everything that he did to me, he is one in a million" Jodie replied.**

"**That is my Larten alright, I get that feeling too. Anyway we have to go now but I hope that you get the transplant that you need and I will come and see you in the hospital if you like" I offered.**

"**Really you would visit me?" Jodie asked.**

"**Yes, we are not bad people; we just drink a little blood to survive. We are known for our charitable natures" I explained.**

"**I will see you at some point then, bye Sarah, bye Mr Crepsley" Jodie called back to us as she walked away with her mother behind her. **

**Normally that would not be done under any circumstances but because Jodie was so ill we made an exception for her. Jodie was sixteen and she had never been kissed so it was to her a very special moment, I gave out pictures and free tickets for the next show to the other girls before they left, I also let them take photos of Madam Octa which was a privilege as normally cameras were not allowed. Madam Octa did not mind, in fact I could swear that she posed for some of the photos. **

**I was proud of Larten's generosity. I had no idea that Larten would help a human to feel what Jodie felt. It was nice of Larten to do that, I did not know that he was so good natured towards humans, I guess that he felt sorry for her as she could die before she got to experience what it is like to kiss somebody. **

**I did not mind, Jodie seemed like the sort of human who deserved a once in a lifetime experience, it sounded like she had endured a rough life so far and as she was so sick it was good to give her something that she could remember and then she would feel special when she was feeling ill or if she was having a bad time. **

**I regrettably had to return to the sewers; George was expecting me so I had to go. I was upset but I had no option. I had to do this for the Clan, everybody was relying on me. **

**I was sad to leave Larten but I had no option, he could not go with me as it would have blown my cover and that I could not risk as it would have resulted in my death. **

**I packed up my bags and I left the camp, everybody else had already gone but it was easier for me to make my way from where I was rather than going from where the camp was going to next because it would have been miles out of my way.**

**I returned to the sewers just as the sun was coming up. I had travelled all night and as a result I was shattered. I pulled up the manhole cover and I climbed down the ladder, I was back in the disused sewer pipe. I was greeted by a rather large rat as I entered; it took one sniff and went back to where it had come from. **

**I could hear voices coming from down the tunnel so I went down it and sure enough I ended up in George's make shift living room. He was so pleased to have me back; the rat which I had met at the tunnel entrance was now in the tunnel where we had set up home. I sat on the sofa, the rat scrambled up on the sofa, it sat on my lap and it went to sleep. **

"**I see that my rodent friend likes you Sarah" George said.**

"**Yes, what is his name?" I asked.**

"**This rat has no name, you can name him" George said.**

"**Well I will call him Aeris." I said. **

"**Aeris well I must say that is an odd name for a rat" George said.**

"**It is a Pagan name, it means strength and loyalty" I said.**

"**Oh well that suits him" George said.**

"**I am shattered; the sun has come up so I am going to bed. I have travelled all night to get back to you." I explained as I went to my room. **

**Aeris felt me move and he woke up, he washed himself and then he squeaked. I went to my room and he followed behind me, I let him onto my bed and he curled up again, this time he slept next to me and when I awoke he was still there as if he was guarding me or something for he was the biggest rat that I had ever seen in my life. **

**From his nose to his tail tip Aeris was about a foot long, he was lovely but he was also greedy and he expected to eat off of my plate after I had finished my food. I let him because if I did not he would squeak really loudly and he would not stop until I had fed him my scraps. **

**It was not uncommon to share a bed with rats as they and we have an affinity but it could be annoying, if you let one rat in then they all wanted to come in so in the end instead of having one rat curled up next to me I had loads and they shredded my duvet cover to make their own nest which really pissed me off, the duvet was brand new and it ended up with baby rats poking out of it everywhere, I had to be careful where I lay on it in case I squashed any babies by accident.**

**If I moved they all moved and one evening I got up to find a rat asleep on my pillow. It had curled up right next to my head. I felt its whiskers on my cheek and that had disturbed me. **

**Another time the rats had piled on top of me and on top of each other, they were moving around and playing all night so all I could feel was a constant squirming sensation where they were wriggling so much and running under my new covers. **

**In the end I had enough, I threw them all out except for Aeris and I locked my door so that they could no longer get in and stop me from sleeping. **

**All the time Aeris was getting bigger, he slept at the foot of my bed or he slept next to me in a little bed that I had made for him, it looked like a dog bed but it was rat sized, it was made out of an old fleece and an old sheet that I had cut up into pieces and stitched together into a bed shape. **

**I stayed with the troupe for another six months before I finally found the one piece of information that I needed. It turned out that Steve had planned to visit the troupe, he had received a letter inviting him to stay with us temporarily and that meant that I was finally going to meet him and get my opportunity to slay him before it was too late. **

**I phoned the Generals and Larten who had been waiting for news. We now had to think of an attack plan or a way to get Steve alone so that we could slay him. After that was done I could go back to my life in the hayloft or be on the road with the circus and therefore stick with Larten and be by his side where I belonged. **

**I had to clean the disused sewer from top to bottom, I had to get rid of the rats and above all I had to show Steve that he could trust me and then he would hopefully accept me into the troupe as one of his own and not kill me for being a vampiress. **

**I was very nervous but I had my duties to keep me occupied besides if I looked nervous the troupe may have started asking questions and that could spell disaster for us all. I was so tired because I had not fed for ages. I was too busy to think about it. **

"**George, are you up for a hunt? I am gagging for a feed" I asked.**

"**Sure. Are you thirsty guys?" George asked the troupe. **

"**Hell yeah, let us go and hunt. It has been a while so we all need a good feed" One vampaneze said. **

"**Alright, I will grab my coat and we'll go" George replied as we all vaulted up the ladder to the manhole cover that lead out onto the streets where we would find our meal. **

**I broke into a block of flats; using my nails to pick the padlock open we went through the gate, into the block and upstairs until we came to a door. I opened it in silence and stealth and we all split up to feed, one watched whilst we fed then we swapped over. I hated killing humans, it was not my way, not my clan's way either but I had to feed like a vampaness so I reluctantly took the life of a guy in his mid-twenties. He was good looking too as humans go. I drained him dry and then I went to guard the door so that George could feed. Secretly I was crying inside, I regretted my actions and I prayed that the vampire gods would not punish me for what I had to do. **

**I waited until I was in my room back in the sewers and then I burst into tears. These were genuine tears of regret, I was not a murderer and killing that guy was hard for me. I would have to have that on my conscience for the rest of my life. **

"**Sarah, what's wrong?" George asked me.**

"**Oh nothing I had a bad dream George" I lied.**

"**Did you? What did you dream?" George asked.**

"**That Steve Leopard was killed by a vampire and that I could not save him" I wept.**

"**Aww, come here. You really are a vampaness if you feel like that. That must have been a horrible dream" George replied.**

"**It was, I fear that our clan will fall. I am scared for our troupe George. We need to increase our numbers" I said.**

"**We will increase our numbers, when Steve arrives there will be a mass blooding. We are due to receive at least one hundred new recruits as it were. Steve will sort it; you do not need to fear" George replied.**

"**Oh well that is ok then. Anyway I am going back to bed now; I will see you at sunset. Good day" I said as I curled up under Larten's cloak and my covers. **

**With that George left me and I slept but not before I had sent a message to Vancha to warn him of the vampaneze's plans to hold a mass blooding. **

**I awoke a little after sunset and I fixed breakfast for the troupe, then I put on my best robes because Steve was due to arrive tonight and I had to look my best. I was apprehensive but excited. I hope that he accepted me because if he did not accept me then the whole vampire clan would suffer for it. The sewers had been cleaned out thoroughly. I had made the place immaculate and it had been decorated with vampaneze banners and welcoming gifts were everywhere. We had clumped together to get Steve a range of things including weapons and humans to blood and feed from. **

**Eventually Steve and his entourage arrived and we met a whole load of new vampaneze who were called Gannen Harst and Hooky and there were a few others. Steve really was a teenage boy. He had the body of an eighteen year old but he was a fair bit older than that. He had become vampaneze because he had been betrayed by his best friend Darren. I knew that it was not the case because Larten had told me the real story but I went along with it. **

"**Steve, may I introduce you to Sarah? She is the rogue vampiress that I mentioned to you a while back" George asked.**

"**Sarah, come here please" Steve asked me.**

"**Yes Steve?" I replied.**

"**I have heard a lot about you, you left the vampire clan because your blood lust was too high for them, now you want me to accept you into the vampaneze clan. Is this correct?" Steve asked.**

"**Yes, it is correct. I have to kill to satisfy my blood lust. I hope that I will be accepted into this troupe because we get along so well" I explained.**

"**Are there any other reasons why I should accept you?" Steve asked.**

"**Well I want revenge on the vampire who blooded me. He did not even ask me he forced himself upon me and I wanted to be vampaness not a vampiress but I can never be that now thanks to him" I said.**

"**Very well, you shall have your revenge. Welcome to the troupe Sarah. I can see that you have the heart of a true vampaness. Your blood is that of the enemy though, however I will overlook this fact because I think that we are similar and I can see what an asset you would be to my clan" Steve explained. **

"**Let's hear it for Sarah, the adopted vampaness. Welcome and by the way just so you are aware I have your back" Steve said above all of the cheering and cat calling. **

**We then settled down to a feast provided by myself. We had humans hanging up on chains just waiting to be fed from. We feasted long after the sun had risen, it was a messy business cleaning up but we had such fun. **

**I prepared a four course meal as well as the fresh blood. The next night we were so full up and tired that we all sat down and played cards or watched TV, we were too lazy to do anything else. Steve had a great time. He was very impressed with our troupe. **

**I had to report back to Prince Vancha somehow. Then an idea hit me, I told the troupe that we were short of alcohol so I went out to get some more so that we could play drinking games. I was not gone long but it was long enough to tell Vancha what I needed to tell him. Now we had to hatch a plan to get Steve alone so that we could kill him and prevent the war that Des Tiny had been planning for so long. **

**I returned to the troupe with shot glasses and a couple of bottles of strong spirits and lots of cans of beer. We all sat around our "borrowed" table and chairs and played drinking games until we were paralytic and too drunk to move. It was so much fun but I knew what I had to do. **

"**Steve, can I talk to you alone please?" I asked when he had recovered from his hangover.**

"**Certainly, hang on a second" Steve said.**

**We went outside into the cool night air, the sky was cloudy but it was not raining. **

"**Steve, this may sound premature but would you do me the honour of being my mate?" I asked.**

"**Actually I wanted to ask you the same thing. Yes I will be your mate. Come on, there is something that you have to see" Steve said as he flit ahead. I followed him not knowing what to expect. **

**Steve led me to a lovely bridge in a park and we walked around like a pair of loved up teenagers hand in hand until dawn. We of course kissed and then we mated. I felt awful but I did not let it show. Now that phase one of my plans was complete it was time for phase two of my plan…killing Steve Leopard! I had no idea how I was going to do it but then an idea struck me. I could poison him and no one would suspect me because I could poison the whole troupe then I could leave and go back to the Cirque Du Freak and there I could be reunited with Larten. **

**I had an idea on how I could poison the troupe but it would take a lot of organising but if it worked it would prevent the war which we were all trying desperately to avoid. **

**My plan was simple but it would take a while. I had to get someone to return to the mountain and collect the six bottles of poisoned wine that had been given to the Princes by Kurda Smalt as part of his betrayal plan. They had been gathered as evidence and locked away but they were still as lethal as ever. My plan was to open them and propose a toast to Steve Leopard and then give them to the troupe as a gift. They would drink them and drop down dead and I could then flit to the Cirque Du Freak and our troubles would be over.**

**It would take time but I was sure that it would work. The troupe trusted me, in their eyes I was one of them so why would I betray them? **

**I phoned Vancha to let him know of my plan and he set off for the mountain with the plan fixed firmly in his mind, we would rendezvous at a later date to pull it off. I told Larten of my idea and he could not believe how ingenious it was. He was of course willing to help out and many of the performers wanted to get involved but they could not get involved for obvious reasons. **

**A/N This next chapter is for the person who gave me my first review of my story Larten's one night stand. Thanks for your review; this chapter is dedicated to you.**

**Chapter 16 Killing Steve Leopard**

**I was quite nervous about pulling off this plan but I had done a lot worse in the past and besides I had to do something to stop Des Tiny from bringing about the apocalypse. That night I returned to the sewers and I had to act normal so as not to raise anybody's suspicions. **

"**Hi Sarah" Steve said**

"**Hi Steve, are you ok?" I asked.**

"**Yes I am fine. I hope that you will be sticking around because we need you" Steve replied.**

"**Well I am intending to stick around as I have nothing better to do and besides I heard that there is a lot of vampire activity so I will dispatch as many as I can ok?" I asked.**

"**Yes that's fine by me. The only good vampire is a dead vampire" Steve growled.**

"**I know what that traitor did to you and I am sorry for it but we will have our revenge" I said.**

"**Yes we will have that alright. We will avenge Kurda and take over the mountain as our own" Steve said.**

"**Yes that would show those vampires who is the superior race" I said.**

"**Anyway I am off hunting now. Would you care to join me?" Steve asked smiling wickedly.**

"**Of course Steve I am starving" I replied as we left for a hunt.**

**We hunted well and we brought down a couple of humans and we took one back for the troupe and we shared the other. It cut me up inside but I had no choice. I needed blood as much as Steve did and I could not risk looking suspicious. **

**I hoped secretly that it would not take Vancha long to return to where we were with the poisoned wine. It would take Vancha a couple of months at most. In the meantime I had to act like the rogue vampiress that I had been for the past few months. It had been hard playing the part and killing humans but I had no choice. **

**Luckily for me I had been able to keep in touch with the clan via my mobile phone. I have no idea how I would have coped if I had not been able to speak to or see Larten because I missed him so much.**

**Larten and I were complete opposites but we suited each other. I was young, he was old, I was soft hearted and good natured, Larten was moody and bad tempered most of the time and his heart was a hard as steel; only Arra and I had managed to melt it but that was down to sheer skill and pure vampiric lust. Larten was the best thing that had ever happened to me; I had learned a lot from him and he had learned a lot from me too. **

**To be without him was to be hollow because Larten was my whole world. Larten was my first thought when I woke up at sunset and the last thought when I went to bed at sunrise. **

**I did not want to be away from Larten for much longer. It was ripping me apart inside but I of course concealed this from the troupe because they thought that Larten was dead due to the fact that I had his cloak as a trophy of my supposed kill. **

**Eventually Prince Vancha arrived at our secret meeting place with the six bottles of poisoned wine that Kurda had planned to use to murder the Princes after his own investiture but because of my discovery I had been able to raise the alarm in time and therefore save the Princes from certain death. **

**The wine was laced with a rare plant named hemlock which is tasteless and lethal to anyone who eats or drinks its juices. In order to use the poison you would distil the plant's juices and add it to food or wine. The poison is quick and virtually undetectable by smell or by other means. **

**It was the perfect poison to use given the circumstances and I could not wait for it all to be over so that I could return to Larten and my beloved hay loft. I met Prince Vancha at our secret meeting place which was near to the park. **

"**Good evening. It is good to see you looking so well." I said as Vancha arrived.**

"**Likewise Sarah, here is the wine that you require. I hope that the plan goes ok. I cannot wait to have you back with us where you belong. We need you Sarah" Vancha said.**

"**Well my place is with Larten and the Cirque Du Freak. I will return to the mountain though if it is required" I responded. **

"**Good but anyway I had better be going. I have seen Larten. He told me to tell you how much he misses you and that he cannot wait to see you again. I wrote a letter for him because as you know his English writing is not that good, he dictated it to me so here you are" Vancha said as he handed me the letter. **

**I started reading it and it was as though Larten was reading it to me. I could hear his voice and it was really strange. The letter said;**

**Sarah,**

**I am writing this to try and communicate with you. I miss you so badly it is unbearable for me. I am a fair few miles away but I am still with you. I love you and though I do not say it often I mean it. **

**You mean so much to me and when we reunite I hope that I will not be parted from you for as long as what we have been. I have no battery on my phone so I cannot call you. I love you lots and soon we will be together.**

**Larten**

"**Sire I am missing Larten so much. I wish that he was here with me because I would tell him exactly how I feel about him" I said quietly.**

"**I am sure that Larten is a lot closer than what you think that he is. If he could hear you what would you tell him?" Prince Vancha asked me.**

"**I would tell him that I love him and that I just want him to hold me close and flit me somewhere so that we could hunt or do some other thing so that we could spend some time together" I said in response.**

"**Look behind you" Prince Vancha instructed me.**

"**Why? Is there danger?" I asked.**

"**No but trust me when I say that you would be wise to turn around" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Very well Sire. I will turn around" I said as I did so and I nearly fell backwards because coming towards me was a figure that was clad in red from head to foot and he was walking at speed to get to where I was standing. **

**It was Larten who was walking towards me and I could not help but go all funny inside. I really could not stand up properly because I was shaking and tingling all over. I had missed Larten a lot and now to have him near me was just too much for me to cope with. **

**Prince Vancha put his hands around my waist to hold me up because my legs were like jelly where I was so excited. I could feel the adrenaline ripping through my veins like electricity going through a cable before a massive power surge. **

**I was really happy to see Larten and I figured out that Prince Vancha must have planned this all along because I was so shocked to see Larten. He had obviously flit a long way but now that he was about a hundred metres or so away from me he stopped still and in the darkness I could make out his face and his infamous scar. I walked closer and I was still very wobbly on my feet but I managed to get to him and after all I had been through a lot worse in my life so walking when wobbly was not that much of a challenge for me. **

"**I am so happy to see you at long last. It has been weeks since I saw you and I am close to succeeding with my mission. The vampaneze will be dead soon" I said. **

**I held Larten close to me because I was freezing and I had wanted him to hold me for so long. **

"**I have missed you a lot my beloved. I was going crazy without you. I hope that your plan works because the Cirque Du Freak needs you. I need you Sarah and I have flit a long way to see you" Larten replied as we kissed each other for the first time in weeks.**

"**I have missed you tonnes too. I cannot wait to re-join you at the Cirque Du Freak because I miss performing on the stage with you" I replied.**

"**Anyway I had better go now because you have to get back to the troupe. I am staying in a hotel so I can charge my phone up then you can call me when the deed is done" Larten replied as he and Vancha flitted away in a blur of green and red. **

**The green was Prince Vancha's straggly hair which had always been green because he used it as additional camouflage when he was hunting. Prince Vancha wore animal skins and he lived in the wilds of the mountain and he was only in the mountain when he had business to attend to because he was a Prince after all. **

**I returned to the sewers with the bottles of wine and I gathered everybody around.**

"**Hey guys come here. I have an idea" I said.**

"**Yes Sarah what is it?" Hooky asked.**

"**I have a plan to throw a huge party for all the vampaneze because it is Steve's birthday soon. It must be a surprise though" I explained.**

"**What a brilliant idea Sarah. You could book out the local hall or night club and we can all pile in there and party all night long" George responded.**

"**As I understand it there are a lot of vampaneze so we will have to invite all of them and make sure that nobody is left out" I replied.**

"**Well I have an address book and listed in it is all of the vampaneze phone numbers and sewer locations so we know where to take the invitations" Hooky replied.**

"**Excellent Hooky that is brilliant. Can you help me with the food and booze?" I asked.**

"**Yeah that is no trouble. You could get George and a couple of others to deliver invitations while we sort out the rest of the entertainment and the food. We will need a fair amount of food and plenty of blood" Hooky responded.**

"**I agree. Steve will love it but it must be a complete secret" I said as we all set to work. It was an ideal way to poison the whole clan in one hit and I knew exactly how to do it. **

**It would be a fantastic way to get rid of the vampaneze in one night and then I could return to Larten afterwards. I was so glad that I had an ideal cover story and Steve would not suspect a thing which meant that he could not raise the alarm. His entire clan would be in one place and it would be hard for Steve to do anything against the vampires or against me because I would be there looking amazing as Steve's mate or so he thought anyway. **

**I could not wait to start organising the party. It was going to be held in the local night club. I hired out the VIP rooms and ordered several boxes of champagne to share out. I would poison each bottle and then I would make some punch which would be shared out also. It took a couple of weeks to organise the party because it was such a huge event. We were celebrating the Vampaneze Lord's birthday and that was a major event for all of us including me because I had to organise it and I had to pull off my plan too. **

**Eventually everything was prepared and the entire vampaneze clan headed off to the local night club where we would be celebrating in style or we would be until the poisons kicked in and the vampaneze clan dropped down dead and left me unharmed. **

"**Hello and welcome everybody. I hope that you enjoy yourselves at Steve's surprise party. I will go and get him and remember what we discussed" I said as I left to go and get Steve.**

"**Hey Steve are you ready to go out?" I asked Steve.**

"**Yes I am so let's go" Steve replied. He was wearing a tuxedo and I had a brand new dress on that Steve had bought for me. I liked it but it was nowhere near as good as the dresses that Larten had bought for me in the past. **

**Steve and I headed across the road to the night club. Steve thought we were just having a regular night out in the VIP areas but we were having so much more than that with food, free drinks and strippers. **

**We walked into the VIP section and the entire vampaneze clan were standing around waiting for us to arrive. We had set up the food and drinks on four long tables around the edge of the room. We had decorations hung up and we had waiters going around offering us champagne and blood. I had got the strippers and dancers to perform in the centre of the room before we hung them up on the ceiling and slaughtered them as a centrepiece. I hypnotised them first so that they were totally unaware of what was going on around them.**

**Then the music started and we all started partying and then I got up on the stage. It was time for me to make a speech and raise a toast to Steve so I said;**

"**Can I have everybody's attention please? It has come time to make a speech. If I can say a few words now it will make me a better public speaker. I love you and I am honoured to be your mate. I hope that we can get revenge on the vampire scum that ruined my chances of being a vampaness. I am glad that you all made it here safely and now I would like to raise a toast to the birthday guy Steve. May you rule over us for a long time and keep us safe from vampires who would seek to harm us" at this point everybody raised their glasses and they started to drink the poisoned wines and spirits. I had separate bottles for myself that I had marked so I knew that they were safe to drink. **

**Around an hour later the clan members started getting tired and they were sitting down around the edge of the room on the benches that had been provided and as they slipped into unconsciousness I could see Steve was among them. **

**Steve was not dead but he was certainly unwell. I went over to him and passed him a glass of water that had been poisoned with the hemlock juice and another chemical named Thallium which was tasteless and odourless and that was enough to finish Steve off; he threw up and then he collapsed. By this point most of the others were dead and those who weren't were too sick or too paralysed to move because I had used a mixture of all different poisons to get the desired effect. Eventually it was all over and every single vampaneze and vampet was dead. I could not believe that the plan had worked so well and afterwards the Generals and I cleaned up the VIP rooms and we got rid of every trace of vampaneze. Nobody would ever know what happened except for us. **

"**What a mess Sarah. We will never get this cleaned up in time. You know how to have a party but you have no idea about keeping the venue tidy" one of the generals complained as he carried the dead bodies outside to be buried. **

"**I had to do what was necessary to succeed" I called out.**

**It took us hours to clean up but eventually the VIP rooms were spick and span and there were no traces of poison or vampaneze left at all. We then left the club and I did the only thing that I could do. I leapt into the air and celebrated the end of the vampaneze before I flitted to where Larten was waiting for me. **

"**Hello. I am so glad to see you safe and sound Sarah. I hope that we can go back to the mountain now unless you want to go back to the Cirque Du Freak. The choice is yours Sarah" Larten said as we returned to our hay loft home which I had missed so much. I got into our bed and slept next to Larten for the first time in what seemed like forever. **

**The next evening I woke up and decided that I would like to return to the mountain so I went to tell Larten but he was not around. I phoned him but he did not answer so I waited for him but he did not come back to the hay loft. I phoned Mr Tall to find out where the Cirque Du Freak was.**

"**Hi Mr Tall is Larten with you at the moment? Only I cannot get hold of him at all and we were supposed to be going back to the mountain together" I asked.**

"**Well Larten is here but he is with some other girl called Samantha. She is his new assistant and they are bonding well. I thought that you knew" Mr Tall replied.**

"**No I had no idea at all. I will head to the mountain alone then if Larten has left me" I responded. I was trying hard not to cry but inside I was shattered because I had been away from Larten for so long and now he had gone and abandoned me.**

"**I am sorry that you had to find out like this Sarah" Mr Tall said.**

"**It is not your fault Mr Tall. Thank you for telling me. If you see Larten tell him that I am going to the mountain and tell him that he has broken my heart" I replied.**

"**Ok I will pass the message on Sarah bye" Mr Tall said.**

"**Bye; see you soon" I said and then I flitted to the mountain where I belonged. I walked into the halls and everyone was surprised to see me; nobody had expected me to be at the mountain and alone. **

**Nobody could believe what had happened when I explained about what Larten had done to me. Every single clan member was shocked and they could see how much that I was hurting. **

**I asked for new quarters and I got all of my stuff out of my old rooms and I put it into my new room which was considerably smaller but it was only for me. I spent my time cleaning and duelling to take my mind off of the pain that I was feeling. **

**I went down to the halls for some food, I was starving and I had neglected myself. I was in a right mess and I was but a shell of who I had been before. I ate in silence and everyone could see how much that I had been affected, nobody knew what to do. I spent most of my time on the Bars. I defeated lots of people and with each victory I felt stronger but my heart had a huge Larten shaped hole in it that I felt would never be filled. **

**A few nights after I had arrived at the mountain, I was standing on the Bars waiting for a challenge when to my surprise and disbelief Larten came into the Halls of Sport. He had a girl with him but she was nothing like me, she was ginger and freckled. This girl was tiny and she could not have been more than fourteen or fifteen. She was dressed in fine clothes, similar to what I had but hers were a different shade of red to mine. I saw that she had a heart shaped locket around her neck and the tell-tale signs of Larten on her neck. **

**I could not believe that Larten had left me for this tiny, freckled, pitiful excuse for a vampiress. I guessed that this vampiress was Samantha whom Mr Tall had mentioned. **

**I could not even look at Larten I just stood on top of the Bars and I let the tears flow. I hopped up onto the top bar and I looked down at how high up I was. I was about twenty or thirty feet off of the ground. I took my dagger and sliced my wrists until the blood spilled profusely. I jumped without thinking about it and as I fell I called out;**

"**I cannot believe what you have done to me Larten. I am upset and angry right now that I must do this because I cannot go on living. My death is because of you and now my blood will be on your hands. Even in death may my tortured soul find Paradise and may I be triumphant" I had my eyes closed and I thought that I was near the end when I felt something catch me. I opened my blurry eyes to see Larten's hands around me. He closed the wounds on my wrists and he flit me to the medical wing. I was put into a bed and then everything went blank. **

**I woke up with the chief medic looking down on me. I could not really remember anything but the scars on my wrists told me what I thought had been the case. I had tried to kill myself and Larten had saved me. I wish he had not but it proved that he still cared about me or he would have let me fall. **

**Larten came in to the wing alone. He obviously wanted to talk to me and I let him.**

"**What do you want? I have nothing to say to you" I growled.**

"**What the hell do you think you were playing at Sarah? You nearly died. I almost did not get you in time" Larten yelled back, he had fire in his eyes.**

"**Please do not yell. I feel awful but this is entirely your fault. You gave me a reason to live, without you I have no reason to live because I cannot bear to be apart from you. You know that Larten. I have told you often enough" I said back between sobs. **

"**I can see that I have made a huge mistake. I do not know what came over me but it is too late now. I will sort it though do not worry. Can you ever forgive my sheer stupidity Sarah? I have saved you twice now and then I break your heart. I am such a fool sometimes. How can I ever make it up to you Sarah?" Larten asked me as he knelt down at my feet.**

"**I have no idea Larten. Like you said it is too late now. I saw that ginger girl at your side with your marks on her neck and her outfit was much nicer than mine" I said angrily. **

"**I am so sorry. I will deal with Samantha in my own way. I can find her a new mentor and we have not mated properly, I have only done a little bit of foreplay but nothing like what I did to you when we first met" Larten explained.**

"**That is not the point. The point is that you left me and now I am suffering because of it. You swore to look after me and that we would never be apart. You broke that promise and now I can never trust you and saving my life twice does not change anything. I love you with such fierce passion but I clearly mean nothing to you or you would have treated me better" I explained.**

"**Look Sarah, I love you do not get me wrong but I was weak and now I will have to pay for my mistake. I will do whatever you ask of me. I want you back in my arms" Larten pleaded.**

"**Ok, here is the deal, get rid of Samantha and then you will make a public declaration of your love for me and me alone in some way" I demanded.**

"**If that is your wish then I will do as you ask. I will give Samantha to Vancha or Arrow to look after. I will never look at her or speak to her again. I will sort out the other thing as well but it will take some organising" Larten said.**

"**Very well Larten but until then I will not mate with you or forgive you until you prove yourself worthy of my love once more. Oh and one more thing go and wash because I can smell that girl all over you. It makes me feel sick to my stomach" I ordered.**

"**If that is what you wish my love. I will be back when my business is complete" Larten said as he vanished. **

**I slumped back into my bed and I rested. I was still extremely angry and weak from the blood loss. I wondered what Larten was going to do to try and win me back. Whatever it was it would have to be good because I was not in a forgiving mood. Larten had hurt me very badly and it had nearly killed me literally but I knew that he would make it up to me in some way. He had to as otherwise I would never look at him or talk to him ever again. **

**Chapter 17 the Mateship Blessing**

**A few nights later I was able to leave the medical wing and I was allowed to walk into the halls and join the rest of the clan. I really missed the mountain folk. I had made a lot of friends and they were all pleased to see that I was well again.**

**I had not seen Samantha since I had been on the Bars but I eventually bumped into her and she was terrified of me just as I had been afraid of Arra before we had duelled and then become friends. Samantha was a fourteen year old half vampiress that Larten had taken a fancy to but it went too far and he ended up blooding her. **

**Samantha used to run away from me if she saw me; she was petrified of me and she had reason to be but I was not going to hurt her. I was not that mean. I was a much better vampiress than that. **

**Samantha tried to duel me on the Bars but I knocked her off with ease. She kept getting up and every time she got on the Bars I knocked her off again and then she gave up and got bored. Samantha went looking for Larten and she found him because he came into the Halls of Sport to see me but when Samantha tried to talk to him he ignored her. He jumped up onto the Bars with me and he gave me a sparring match and then a proper duel which was fun. Larten tried to knock me off but I sent him sailing to the ground with a little combo that Arra had taught me. **

**Larten jumped back up onto the Bars and he congratulated me then he came in to kiss me and as Samantha was there I let him kiss me and he lifted me up into the air and soon I was being spun around in the air like the old days. Samantha watched in awe because she had not seen any of Larten's tricks that he liked to do to me. I could see that she was upset but I did not care. **

**I left the Halls of Sport with Larten behind me like some kind of red shadow. Samantha followed us but Larten told her to stay away from us both as she was no longer his concern and he did not care about her any more.**

**Larten got Vanez Blaine to take care of her as he was in need of a new assistant to help him keep the Halls of Sport clean and the equipment needed to be maintained like I used to have to do when I had duties to perform.**

**One evening I was summoned to the Hall of Meetings. Even though the council had ended many months before they had decided to hold a special gathering. The entire clan turned out to hear the announcement that Larten had. I was quite embarrassed but I had asked him to do this so now it was time for me to find out how Larten had planned to win me back. **

"**Vampires of the clan we have gathered together in the Hall of Meetings because Larten has an announcement which the whole clan must hear, Sarah would you come up here please?" The chief councillor asked. I slowly walked forward from my seat and stepped onto the elevated platform not knowing what to expect. **

"**Larten over to you and please keep it short because we all want to start preparing for this event" The chief councillor said.**

"**Prepare for what?" I asked interested. Then Larten knelt down on his knees before he spoke and he said;**

"**Sarah I have brought the whole clan here to tell them how much I love you. I have to ask you a question that I hope the answer will be yes to because it has taken a lot of preparation to get this far. I am shaking as you can see and normally I never shake do I? I am feeling nervous and it has been a long time since I felt this nervous. Sarah I have gathered everybody here to ask you in front of them if you would do me the very great honour of becoming my blessed mate" **

"**Is this like a proposal of marriage but vampire style?" I asked.**

"**Yes you could say that. Do you accept my proposal as it were?" Larten asked me.**

"**Alright I accept your proposal. Yes I will marry you or become your blessed mate" I said. **

**At this point Larten arose and he pulled out of one of his many pockets a box that obviously contained a ring. It was the biggest stone that I had ever seen but it was not a diamond it was a ruby with purple stones surrounding it set into what must have been platinum to match my bracelet which I still had on my wrist.**

"**So uh what happens now? I cannot believe how big this stone is" I said as I left the platform.**

"**Well now we must prepare for our blessing or wedding as it were. It involves us repeating vows and then a huge feast, then a ceremonial hunt and then a round of games in the Halls of Sport before we then leave the mountain on what you might know as a honeymoon but vampires call it a "Mateship night"" Larten explained.**

"**Sounds like fun to me. Does this mean that I will be Mrs Sarah Crepsley?" I asked.**

"**No you will become known as Madam Crepsley or Sarah to your friends" Larten explained.**

"**Ok, I had better start preparing then. There is so much to do. When is this taking place?" I asked.**

"**As soon as everything is ready we will hold the ceremony. There is so much to do. We have to organise the decorations, the food, the drinks, the hunting party, the flowers, the dresses, the suits, the vows which we will take and then there is the Mateship night, the clothing for that night, the venue for that night and the list goes on and it is not cheap either" Larten explained.**

"**Well I had better get started then. I will start writing invitations tonight" I said and I flit upstairs to grab my writing set. **

**I was so excited. I could not contain it because my life was finally going right. I had always hoped that secretly something like this would take place but I had fought to get there and now I felt like I had finally won and that everything would be ok now that I had Larten back again. We had separated for nineteen months and that is a long time for anyone to be away from their partner. I was not even sure if we would get back together but we did so I was very lucky. **

**Larten could not really afford a big affair so we called in a few favours and managed to borrow enough money to have a decent ceremony. I would have to pay them back later when I was back at the Cirque Du Freak working. **

**My dress was stunning. It was a huge thing that was like a proper wedding dress except it was deep red with purple and gold crystals on it. It was like a corset with a huge flowing skirt that dropped to the floor. It had several layers of net under it to make it all puffy.**

**Larten's suit was the same colour but it was so fine. It was made from this sort of velvet material with the traditional high collared cape that went with it.**

**I had real jewels that matched and a genuine train and a veil too. I looked like a royal bride with a dark secret. **

**My corset was laced up so tight it was hard to breathe in it but I had to follow tradition and besides it would probably be ripped off of my body anyway so it did not matter how tight it was. **

**The flowers were roses and all kinds of mountain flowers from the hedgerows. I had a huge bouquet and my mateship party had the same but smaller. I was put in charge of the feast. I had to choose what to have and since I could cook I had to make most of it with a bit of help. We had a hog roast and a lot of alcohol, plenty of soups and stews, bread and bowls of berries and nuts. There was enough for the whole clan and we set it up in the main hall on a new table that had been made for the occasion. I got Vanez to help Seba with the decorations. We hung up our banners and we had a banner that had "Congratulations on your blessed mateship" written on it. We hung it up over the table so that when the clan entered the hall they would see it. **

**Larten organised his hunting party. The tradition was that Larten would take his group into the woods and they would bring down a stag for the Princes as a gift to say thank you for performing the ceremony; then everybody would drink from it to symbolise our clan's unity before it was roasted and served as the feast centrepiece. **

**Finally everything was ready for our mateship blessing to take place. I was very nervous. The ceremony would be in the Princes Dome and then we would all move into the main hall before the hunting party would leave. In the meantime I would be feasting and joining others in the Halls of Sport for the entertainment whilst I waited for the hunting party to return.**

**I had not seen Larten for three weeks as was tradition. We had spoken but we had not been permitted to actually see each other because it was bad luck apparently just as humans believed. **

**I cautiously walked into the Princes Dome. The whole clan were in there sitting on the long benches. I had to stand in front of the Princes facing the clan when I took my vows just like in a normal wedding. I was standing in front of the Princes. I was shaking like a leaf in the breeze with pure nerves. **

"**Vampires of the clan we have gathered together tonight in the sight of the vampire gods to join this vampire and this vampiress in a blessed mateship which is an honourable state to enter into. I must ask that if anybody knows a reason why these two vampires may not be joined in a blessed mateship please let them voice their concerns or for ever hold their tongues" Prince Vancha proclaimed. The whole clan was silent to my relief. I was afraid that Samantha would speak up and voice her concerns because of what had happened but she knew better than that. I had let her come but she had no part in the ceremony; she was there to watch in silence and then she was going to serve drinks for people but that was it.**

"**I must ask both of you standing before us if either of you know a reason why you cannot enter into this blessed mateship" Prince Vancha continued.**

"**I know of no reason Sire" I said as was tradition.**

"**I can think of no reason why I cannot enter into this blessed mateship either" Larten replied.**

"**Ok then that is good, Larten do you give yourself to Sarah? Do you vow to be by her side? Do you swear with the vampire gods as your witnesses that you will always be a faithful mate? If you do so swear say so" Vancha said.**

"**I swear so by all that is vampiric" Larten said.**

"**Sarah same question, do you give yourself to Larten? Do you vow to be by his side? Do you swear with the vampire gods as your witnesses that you will always be a faithful mate? If you do so swear say so" Vancha asked me.**

"**I swear it to be so" I replied.**

"**Larten repeat after me. I Larten Crepsley do accept you Sarah Jane Louise Wintle to be my mate, to stand by you and to guard you. I swear to love you and to you I give my body and my soul" Vancha said.**

"**I Larten Crepsley do accept you Sarah Jane Louise Wintle to be my mate, to stand by you and to guard you. I swear to love you and to you I give my body and soul" Larten repeated.**

"**Sarah repeat after me. I Sarah Jane Louise Wintle do accept you Larten Crepsley as my mate; I swear to always support you and stand up for you. I promise to love you and to you I give my body and my soul" Vancha continued.**

"**I Sarah Jane Louise Wintle do accept you Larten as my mate; I swear to always support you and stand up for you. I promise to love you and to you I give my body and soul" I repeated solemnly.**

"**Larten do you have the ring?" Vancha asked.**

"**I do" Larten replied. **

"**Then place it on Sarah's finger and say to her I give you this ring as a symbol of our bond and may the gods bless it and bless us and our mateship." Vancha instructed.**

"**I give you this ring as a symbol of our bond and may the gods bless it and bless our mateship" Larten repeated.**

**I said the same as I placed his ring on his finger. Then we faced each other for the final part of the ceremony.**

"**Larten and Sarah you have taken these vows in front of the gods and in front of the clan. I Vancha March bless you and your mateship" Vancha said.**

"**I Paris Skyle bless you and your mateship; may the gods look favourably upon you" Paris Said.**

"**I Mika Ver Leth bless you and your mateship; may you always remain together and may you always be happy and prosperous" Mika Ver Leth said. **

"**I Darren Shan do bless you and your mateship. May you and Sarah always be a good influence on our clan" Darren said.**

**Prince Arrow was away from the mountain as one Prince always had to be away from the council for security reasons. **

"**Larten and Sarah you have taken your vows and exchanged rings. You are now formally blessed mates and you may now kiss your mate Larten" Vancha said and then he continued;**

"**May I present to you all Mr and Madam Crepsley"**

**As tradition stated we kissed I was in high heels but I was still shorter than Larten so he scooped me up and he held me up level to him. I never did anything in public so I was quite embarrassed but it was so worth it. We had not seen each other for weeks and it had been so long since we had kissed each other; the last time had been when we were on the Bars after our last duel. **

**Afterwards we exited the Princes Dome and headed into the hall where the food was. Larten had to leave for the ceremonial hunt so he and his hunting party left after a few glasses of ale and I made my way around the guests and I spoke to lots of clan members. **

**I stuffed myself with food and wine then I hopped up onto the Bars and waited for the ceremonial games to begin. It was our form of entertainment until the band played; I had managed to find a group of vampires who played instruments so I put them together and they practiced hard. They played all kinds of music from around the world and it was good. You could dance to it but I was happy on the Bars knocking off everybody who challenged me. I had such fun. **

**Soon enough the hunting party returned with the biggest stag that I had ever seen. It had eleven points on its antlers and it was massive. As it was my mateship I had to feed first with Larten and then the stag's carcass was placed on the table in front of the princes. The Princes carried it to the open fire and roasted it then they cut it up into sections. They ate their fill and then we got the rest of it as we were still hungry. **

**Then Larten and I had to dance. I picked a modern song that Larten did not know. We danced to the song "Scandalous" by Mis-Teeq. The band played a slightly different version of it but it was still great. I still had my dress on, I had not changed into another outfit and the best thing was that I could dance in it. It moved with me and I looked really cool. I was not a great dancer but I was good enough to perform basic steps. I enjoyed dancing but soon it was time for the speeches. **

**We all sat down and now came the embarrassing bit. The selected hunt party had to stand up and give speeches. They had to tell stories about Larten's escapades and his life before he met me. Larten went as red as his cape when Seba stood up and told us a tale of a drunken night of strip poker that ended up as truth or dare. Larten ended up drunk in Gavnur's coffin and he was dared to stay there until the sun had set. It was very funny but not as funny as the tale that Vanez told the clan about me. **

**I could not speak for choking with laughter as it was a story about how I had gone to the loo in nothing but Larten's cloak wrapped around me. I had flit down to the W.C and Gavnur had followed thinking that I was Larten so when he tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around wearing nothing at all he erupted with laughter and Gavnur went red as he was staring at my naked body that had been marked and scarred by Larten. **

**Then Larten entered the W.C and all hell broke loose but all was soon forgiven and from that night on I was always dressed when I went anywhere even if I had previously been in bed. **

**After the speeches we left the mountain as was tradition. Larten had to flit me somewhere and there we would spend our first day as blessed mates. I assumed that Larten had built some kind of shelter for us both to spend the day in but in fact he took me to one of his secret hideaways that had been built years before. **

**I was not allowed to know or see where we were going but I knew what was coming up so I tried to think about that. We entered the secret hideaway. It was like a cottage but it was quite small and it only had a bed and a wardrobe in it. No other furniture was in there as it was not required. This was basically a one roomed house that was meant only for mating. I did not know how long we would be there for but a week or two was usual for newly blessed couples. **

**I liked the room. It had been decorated but I could see that it had not been lived in for some time if at all. I opened the wardrobe and there was a whole load of stuff that was not ours. There was clothing and weapons and what looked like a jewellery box.**

"**Larten what is all this stuff in here? It is not mine" I said.**

"**Oh I completely forgot to empty it out. Most of it was Arra's and the rest belongs to Samantha. I should return Samantha's items to her when I can. Arra said in her letter that you could have her weapons and her clothing but it would not fit you. It is too big for your tiny frame. I was supposed to dispose of it but I decided to keep it because I have nothing of Arra's to remind me of her apart from these meagre items and the necklace that she gave me when we got together" Larten said. **

"**Is that the one that you always wear?" I asked.**

"**Yes. I vowed that I would never take it off and I never have" Larten said.**

"**That is fair enough. I do not mind but I would rather not be reminded of your ex mate on my mateship night" I said.**

"**What do you wish me to do?" Larten asked.**

"**Well get rid of all these things. Put them in your vault or something but I do not want them around me whilst we are celebrating our mateship" I said.**

"**If that is what you wish. I will flit the stuff to my vault and then I will return to do what we came here to do. The necklace will always stay around my neck. It is close to my heart and I believe that is bad form to break a promise to the dead in case they are watching us" Larten said as he picked up the possessions and he vanished. **

**Meanwhile back at the mountain the party was in full swing. The band was playing and everybody was getting hammered. Larten quickly went to his vault and he put the stuff in there. He returned Samantha's possessions to her and of course everybody was surprised to see Larten back in the halls. **

"**That was quick Larten" Gavnur joked.**

"**Do not be so stupid. We have not mated yet. I had to clear out the wardrobe in the room. I was full of my ex's stuff and I totally forgot because I have not been there for so long. I have returned Samantha's things to her but Arra's stuff is in my vault. It is all I have to remind me of her" Larten explained to Gavnur.**

"**I understand. Anyway I will not hold you up any longer. You have a job to do Larten. It's your mateship night after all" Gavnur said.**

"**It is indeed my mateship night so I had better give my best performance yet. I want to make it unforgettable. I admit that it has not gotten off to a good start with all of my ex's stuff in that wardrobe. I do not know why I am discussing this with you though Gavnur. I am sure that there is a barrel of ale with your name on it somewhere" Larten replied.**

"**Aye, that there is. More than one barrel has my name on it. Tell me all about it afterwards though and spare no details. I miss our conversations" Gavnur said. **

"**I will tell you nothing Gavnur. It is not your concern. I am not the vampire I once was. I have changed but now I must go. See you in a fortnight or so" Larten said as he flitted back to the one roomed cottage where I was waiting for him. **

**I was so nervous. I was excited too and I was quite tipsy but I was ready for this. I had been looking forward to it for a long time.**

**Larten entered the cottage and he wasted no time. He was as up for it as what I was and he had fire in his eyes. I could see that his inner animal was going to be released and that meant that this was going to be good.**

"**Are you ready for this? I am about to give you my best performance yet. I hope that you can take it. I warn you that I am going to do things to you like you have never experienced. You will be screaming out my name before long" Larten said.**

"**I am as ready as I will ever be. Bring it on then Larten my new blessed mate" I replied as I stood up and then Larten literally ripped my dress off of me. I had my underwear on but that got ripped off of me also. Larten was so strong that it was easy for him to rip the fabric off of me. I stood there naked in front of him. He had already ripped off his own clothing and he pounced on me with such ferocity and intent that I could do nothing. **

**We mated with such passion. We let our inner animals take over. I ended up being bitten and scratched to ribbons and that was before Larten entered me. He was on top and he completely took over. We rolled over again and again and then I rocked on top with speed and it was so good. Then Larten pounded into me deeply. I could do nothing I just stayed there and endured it until I felt pleasure taking over my body. I was enjoying it so much. This was a really good session. It was like the first time that we had met when we were at it for hours but this was different because now we were using chains. I was chained to the bed and I was at Larten's mercy.**

"**You have me where you want me. Take me now and show me no mercy. I want you so badly" I gasped.**

"**Have patience my love. I will not give it to you all at once or it will not last as long but if you want me to take you then I will" Larten said.**

**I could do nothing except let him have his way with me. Then it was my turn to chain Larten up so I did and I took total control. I would not let him come straight away; I teased him for ages before I let him release his fluids into my body. I rocked on top of him until I was too tired to continue. Then I unchained him and we slowed down but we did not stop because Larten still had loads left to give. I laid there and he took me to a new level of pleasure; I had never felt like this before it was just too much. My whole body was writhing with the waves of orgasm that was pulsing through me; I could not control myself because the animal inside me had taken over and although I was myself I was not acting like it. I had red eyes and I wanted it harder and faster. I had the same fire my eyes that Larten had in his eyes.**

"**Larten!" I screamed his name out loud for that was all I could do; Larten had made me come so hard that screaming out his name and begging him not to stop what he was doing to me was inevitable. **

**I was covered in bites and bloody, deep scratch marks and gashes at the end of our mateship night. Larten had bites and scratches on him also; I had dug my nails deep into his back and brought them around onto his front. We had so much adrenaline in our bodies that the pain did not stop us and we licked the free flowing blood off of each other to close the wounds that we had inflicted during our mateship.**

"**Wow. That was so amazingly powerful. I love you so much. I forgive you for your past mistake with Samantha. I was not expecting that; my clothes are ripped to shreds and this bed is covered in blood" I said as I relaxed because I was so tired. **

"**I expected as much. We can still sleep in this bed if we change the bedding but we will have to be careful of the broken slats" Larten replied as he lay down beside me.**

**The bed had been broken because we had been so rough with each other; some of the wooden slats had snapped and one of the posts had come down but we could still sleep on it after we changed the bed linen. We curled up like a pair of animals; we were wrapped around each other and we kissed until I turned over and yawned. I was so tired but I was very satisfied and I have to say that was the best sex that I had ever had up until this point. **

**I slept well because I was so tired. When the sun had set neither of us rose as we were still recovering from the day before. I eventually got up and fixed breakfast though. We needed all of the strength that we could get. I was very sore from the day before. I was very happy though and every time I did something I saw my rings dazzling in the light. I felt so lucky and honoured. **

**We stayed in the cottage for two weeks and then we returned to the mountain. I was glad to be back but I had to put up with the clan asking me questions. **

**I was having a wash when a couple of other vampiresses came in to wash also. They could see the scars on my body and I had a fair few. I did not like them because I was self-conscious but the bear attack could not have been avoided and I had enjoyed my mateship night so much that I did not mind that Larten had scarred me. **

**I had such a good time in the mountain. I moved back into Larten's quarters and I felt at home. I missed our hay loft and I missed our manor house but I loved the mountain. It looked great now that it had been decorated. **

**Chapter 18 Vampire Ville**

**Larten and I stayed in the mountain for a few more months before one evening Larten decided to take me away on holiday. We were going to a vampire friendly place but I had no idea where it was or how we were going to get there. **

**Larten had sprung the surprise on me one day after we had gone to bed. We were in bed talking when Larten had said;**

"**Sarah I think that it is about time that I took you on that holiday I promised you. I have booked two first class tickets to Vampire Ville. It is like a resort for vampires where they can relax and have a good time. It is quite expensive but I never break a promise as you know. We can go whenever you are ready" **

"**Oh Larten it sounds amazing. I would love to go there. I will go with you as soon as it is possible. I need a holiday" I replied.**

"**I thought that you could do with something to look forward to. We will leave the night after tomorrow. We need to pack and find people to fill in for us as we will not be here to do our duties" Larten responded.**

"**Very well thank you so much for spoiling me like this. I really have no idea how to make it up to you. I can never repay you for this" I explained.**

"**There is no need to repay me. I am trying to be the best mate that I can be and that means spoiling you and taking on holiday" Larten told me. **

"**Thank you again. I will forever owe you for this. I love being your mate as much as I love you" I said as I looked at my rings.**

"**You are my blessed mate. There is a difference. I love you and this is my way of showing you what you mean to me" Larten replied. **

"**I got my ring engraved by the way. It has your name in it now" I said.**

"**It is like your bracelet then. I had my ring engraved with our initials and a heart between them" Larten explained.**

"**That is so sweet. I feel so lucky that I have you as my blessed mate. In the dark times when we separated I begged and prayed that one night you would return to me and reinstate our mateship" I explained.**

"**Are you telling me that you wanted me back that badly? I cannot believe how stupid I was to do what I did. I did not realise just how much I meant to you if I had you praying and begging the vampire gods for me to return to you" Larten said.**

"**Well I did say that I loved you and I meant it. I have always loved you. Anyway I am tired. Good day my blessed mate" I said.**

"**Sleep well my love" Larten replied as we curled up and slept the day away. **

**I spent the next evening packing my bags ready to leave for my holiday. I was really looking forward to it. I was not sure which country we were going to but I knew that part of the journey would be made by a sled that was pulled by huskies. I assumed that we were going somewhere cold or somewhere that had snow. **

**I was relying on Larten to lead the way. We were going by bus and then by husky sled. We had to get to the bus stop which was a long way from the mountain. We flitted at full speed and we reached it six hours later. That will tell you how far away it was. **

**The bus was late but it was a luxury bus and it had been specially made with sun proof windows and proper tables that we could eat on and play cards on. **

"**Welcome aboard the Vampire Ville Express. Can I have your names and your tickets please?" The driver asked us.**

"**Yes, the name is Mr and Madam Crepsley. We have two first class seats" Larten said.**

"**Right this way. I see that you two are blessed mates. You are the first couple in over five hundred years to become blessed mates. You must be very proud" The driver said.**

"**Yes. I am honoured. Proud does not cover it" I said.**

**Larten and I took up our seats on the bus. They were very comfortable. We were on the bus with several other couples that also wanted a holiday. I still had no idea about where Vampire Ville was but I was happy about the mystery. **

**Larten and I played cards and we took advantage of the first class freebies. We had free champagne and as we had recently became blessed mates we got an upgrade so we were treated like movie stars. Nothing was too much trouble and it was at no extra cost either. I felt so honoured by all of this attention. Larten and I had our own compartment at the back of the bus which was nice; it even had curtains that pulled across so that if we were tired or if we wanted privacy we got it. It meant that we could play strip poker if we chose to or if we wanted to do other stuff then we could. **

**When we finally arrived at Vampire Ville I was shattered and I wanted to straight to our room. It was luxury; it was like the room in the City Grand Hotel but it was a lot bigger and it was designed with vampires in mind as it had free blood and there were weapons attached to the walls that we could try out if we wished to. There was also a huge coffin that was big enough for two instead of a bed but it looked cosy enough. I had not slept in a coffin before.**

**Larten missed his coffin but I was not too keen on the idea of sleeping in one so he had got a bed instead and adapted it for us when we had arrived at the mountain. It had posts attached to it and it had extra slats in case some got broken. It had chains attached to the bed stead also but that was not my idea; Larten liked bondage. I used the chains on Larten because after the first time that Larten had chained me up on our mateship night I decided that it was not for me so I let him do other stuff instead of chaining me up like a sex slave. **

**I was quite happy with our room in Vampire Ville. I was even ok with sleeping in a coffin but it was the facilities that I wanted to check out. This was a proper resort so we had a pool and tennis courts, an arena and plenty of opportunity to go riding and enjoy other vampire pursuits. We even had a special night club that was called the Sundown Club. It was special because it was run by humans who had clan connections. I knew that I going to have such a great time at Vampire Ville.**

**I finally found out that we were in Sweden. We had travelled for miles. The husky sled ride had been really fun. We had a sled with two seats and twelve huskies that pulled us and our luggage. I had packed loads of clothes and weapons. I was not sure if I would need them but it was always good to be prepared as Larten had taught me. **

**I did not get much sleep because Larten kept me up all day and at night time we were always out and about making the most of our first class upgraded passes. I loved the spa and the sauna. It did my muscles the world of good and they offered special scar reduction treatments. I had them done on my back and on my front because I was badly scarred. I had to wear a high collar all of the time because Larten had a thing about love bites. I was always covered up so that the bites could not be seen. I found it embarrassing to have them but when I saw the other vampiresses showing theirs off it did not seem so bad so I let some of them show if they were not too big. **

**I also made full use of the gym and the pool. I almost felt human again but one look in the mirror reminded me of whom I really was. I was always looking at my rings; they served as a permanent reminder of what I had achieved in my life and who I slept next to every day and woke up with every night. **

**Things were ok. In fact they were better than ok but I started asking around and I found out lots of things that I did not wish to know. These things were about Larten and about the last time he had come to Vampire Ville. He had brought his assistant and his then mate with him when he first arrived. **

**The mate that Larten had brought here was Arra obviously but what upset me was that I was sleeping where she had slept and Larten was treating me the same as her. I know how much he loved her but she was always there like he could not move on or something. It was weird. What annoyed me the most was that he had nightmares or dreams about her and their time together and one day he even called me Arra when we were mating which was the last straw. I then realised that he was trying to replace her with me and he wanted me to be like her but I was not Arra and I never would be.**

**I was Sarah my own person with my own dreams and goals in life; just because I loved the Bars and I looked similar to Arra it did not mean that Larten had to turn me into her almost. **

**It annoyed me so much that we got into a fight about it and it was not pleasant. We had little spats before but not like this; this was serious. **

"**I am so pissed off at you Larten. I cannot believe that you would try and turn me into your ex; worse still your deceased ex. I will never be Arra and I do not want to be her either!" I bellowed.**

"**Well it is hard letting go of the mate that I loved for so long. I still love her now and that will never cease but it is different between you and I. Had I not met you I had planned to ask Arra to be with me again." Larten shouted back.**

"**So you do not love me? You say that you do but you cannot love me as much as what you love her. The fact that you called out her name in bed and not mine was the last straw. That is just not done. I have only ever been with you but supposing I called out Steve Leopard's name or something. You would not like it either." I explained.**

"**No I would not like it one bit. I made a mistake because I was drunk and I was fantasising about her. It makes me have more fun if I do." Larten said.**

"**That is even worse. That is like saying that I do not satisfy you and the only way that I can get you off is if you picture me as your ex. That is so hurtful." I yelled back.**

"**Well it is the truth. I have never told anybody before but nothing can satisfy me unless I am picturing Arra doing what you do when you do it." Larten explained.**

"**Well if that is the case then I had better not mate with you anymore. I do not want you to imagine your ex when we are together. You should see me and be happy with me. I wear your rings not Arra. I supported you when no one else did. I even took you back after the Samantha incident. I realise now that maybe I should not have taken you back so readily." I cried out.**

"**Well if I had of met you then Arra would still be here and you would be living a regular human existence and you have been a vet or whatever it was that you were hoping to become." Larten said.**

"**Do you blame me for Arra's death? I avenged her remember? I avenged her in your name out of love for you." I said.**

"**I know you did and no I do not blame you but I just wish that she was here even if you are here. I wish that Arra was still alive because I miss her so much." Larten admitted.**

"**I know that you miss her but remember what she said in her last letter? She instructed you not to be sad and she also told you to look after me and be a good mate to me. If she is looking down on you now how do you think that she would feel?" I asked.**

"**Arra would be disappointed that I have not kept my promise to her which was to take care of you and be the loving, faithful mate that I should be. I vowed to be those things to you when I took my mateship vows and I have not upheld them. I feel so ashamed." Larten said calmly.**

"**Do not be ashamed it is natural to grieve and it can take years to get over something like that. I was the same when I left my parents for you. Remember how I was in the beginning? I got through it though and I got through it because you were there for me so now let me be there for you. Open up and let me help you." I said.**

"**I will try to but it is hard. I feel like Arra is haunting my memory. It is like she is always there and she will never leave me but at the same time it is stopping me from moving on with my life. I have to let her go but not forget her." Larten said.**

"**Yes that is a good way of describing it. Darryl moved on and he found Raven and you have me; if Darryl can move on so can you although I understand how hard it is for you. You knew Arra way longer than most vampires and I know why she is so special to you. Arra told me what she did for you." I explained.**

"**So you know my secret?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes, I know everything." I replied.**

"**Oh. Well in that case I can see why you understand now. It all makes sense to me." Larten said.**

**Larten had never told anyone but he had a bad experience and Arra had effectively saved his life. She had managed to stop the people from doing what they were about to do. Arra risked her own life to save Larten and then they had fallen in love afterwards. They vowed to be at each other's side until death separated them and that is why Larten was having a hard time letting go of Arra. **

**I tried to help him but I was no bereavement councillor. I had no idea what to do but we tried to enjoy the rest of our holiday even after we had argued and fought like bat and moth. I felt awful but there was nothing that I could do. I just tried to put it to the back of my mind. We continued our mateship but it was a rough time for both of us. Larten was missing Arra like crazy and I was missing him because although we were together physically mentally Larten was not with me because he was stuck in the past. **

"**Sarah. Do you know what tonight is?" Larten asked me.**

"**No, I think it is Tuesday but it is not a night of celebration is it?" I asked.**

"**Tonight is the anniversary of the night when Arra and I got together. We got together sixty years ago tonight." Larten told me.**

"**Oh. I did not know that. So on this night Arra and you got together sixty years ago. You were together ten years then you split and you left the mountain and returned fifty years later with me. Is that correct?" I asked.**

"**That about sums it up. I normally get drunk and relive that night but this year I should do something different I think. The night in question means nothing to you but to me it marked a major turning point in my life." Larten explained.**

"**If you want to celebrate it you can. I would not know how to celebrate it but if you want me to help you I will do." I said.**

"**Seriously you want to be a part of this?" Larten asked me.**

"**Well I vowed to be at your side and to support you so that is what I intend to do." I replied. **

"**Very well then you may help me celebrate this night; normally I put on the clothes that I was wearing on that night. I do not have them though as they got left behind in the mountain. I will have to wear my second set of clothes and the cape that I wore on that night is the only thing I have to wear. Next I visit the places where we went; drinking along the way and then finally I would go and find Arra and then we would reminisce about that night and then we would spend the day together but not in that way if you see my meaning. However because Arra is dead I cannot do the last part so instead I will drink a toast to her and then I will ask the vampire gods to watch over us and I will ask them to allow Arra to come to me in a dream or something like that instead." Larten explained.**

"**Very well then if that is what you want to do tonight. I guess that we will be getting hammered and then we will wake up with headaches." I replied as I changed my clothes. **

"**If you do not wish to get drunk then we do not have to get drunk. I just want to look back and remember the vampiress who saved my life then saved me from myself. I was nightmare when I was younger. I listened to nobody and Seba had no control over me but Arra kept me in check and she helped me become the vampire I am tonight." Larten said.**

"**Ok I understand. Arra was like a second mentor to you as well as your mate. I guess she provided a fair bit of entertainment for you and a decent sparring partner. I bet she taught you how to fight or taught you how to duel." I replied.**

"**Arra taught me everything that Seba did not. When I arrived I was pompous, proud and arrogant and Arra had not been interested in me at all. It took me months of training to get her to notice me then one night I jumped onto the Bars and I beat her. We made a deal before the duel that if I beat her she would have to kiss me and she did as well. I was hooked from that moment and I spent the rest of my time trying to lure her into my quarters but she never came to me. I went to her instead. Arra knew how to play hard to get but eventually she let me inside because she was bored. I have never forgotten that night. Arra's power over me was supreme; she made me want her and when we were not together she was always on my mind. I would skip duties and sneak into the Halls of Sport to see her and then we would duel before making our exit out of the mountain and into the woods or somewhere where nobody would find us until we had finished our session. One time we did not return for a fortnight and a search party was sent out for us. We were hidden in the trees and we heard them calling us but we let them go on searching for us while we made the most of our time together. We came back to the mountain and faced the music but it was worth it just to see the look on Seba and Arrow's face when we returned unharmed and totally oblivious to the trouble that we had caused." Larten told me.**

"**I see. You must have been in deep trouble. Making your mentors send out a search party and go through all that trouble just so you two could be together. I am glad that we did not have to sneak around like that." I said.**

"**Well we had extra duties and we were not allowed to see each other after that but we sent secret messages to each other and then when the council held a meeting they got to the any other business section and we stood up together and we made our mateship official and no one knew until that point. Seba and Arrow could not stop us so they accepted it. We stayed together for the next ten years and then we split up because I wanted to go to the Cirque Du Freak and Arra did not want to so I left her. It hurt me but I had to do it because I was bored of the mountain. I was going to be made a Prince but I changed my mind at the last minute, joined the Cirque Du Freak and I did not step foot in the mountain again until I took you there." Larten reminisced.**

"**Oh right I understand now. We had better start celebrating this significant night then had we not?" I said. **

"**Yes. As we are in Vampire Ville we can go and party in Arra's name and have a blast. Arra would not want us to be sad as she was such a live wire. No one could order her because she did what she wanted when she wanted and she had little respect for anybody except me and her mentor. She was raised by Lady Evanna as one of her servants so she had a tough life before Arrow blooded her and brought her to the mountain. I fell for her charms as she really was stunning but I never would have won her if not for the deal we made before we duelled. Arra hated me for beating her but she loved how I put the effort in and I left her head spinning after we kissed. I made her crave me as much as I craved her." **

"**I see. I am ready to party if you are. We need to celebrate Arra's life and give thanks for it for she meant so much to you." I said.**

"**Yes let's go and hit the clubs. I am ready now that I have my old cape on. It is still stained with Arra's blood. "Larten said.**

"**Why did you not wash it Larten?" I asked.**

"**Because the blood was what Arra spilled when I took her innocence from her. Arra made a gift of her innocence to me." Larten explained as we left.**

"**Ah I get it. Arra saved your life; then she gave you her virginity and that is why you shared such a deep connection. I understand why you loved her so much." I said.**

"**Anyway my past is not really something which I wish to discuss. What we did and what we did not do is personal but as you can imagine it was pretty meaningful because Arrow had planned to break Arra himself when he deemed her ready but she came to me and she put her trust into my skilled hands but at the time I was not as good as what I am now. Arra made me good because she had a natural talent." Larten said as we entered the club and began to dance. **

"**How many women have you been with? How many girls have you broken in?" I asked intrigued.**

"**I have slept with countless women. I have no idea but I have only had three serious relationships; you, Arra and the other girl that I was engaged to in France. I have taken the innocence of many ladies. Most of them were humans when I was human but I have taken innocence from vampiresses also. Most of the vampiresses in the clan had a brief thing with me before Arra changed that. I was a player and as men go I was a nightmare. I hardly ever slept in my own quarters; I was called a quarter caller which means that I would always have women in there with me; sometimes more than one at the same time but I am not like that now because Arra said that she wanted me to commit to her. If I really wanted her which I did she wanted me to prove it so she told me to save myself for her until she was ready to accept me as her mate." Larten told me as we were dancing to a Britney Spears tune. **

"**So she stopped you from being effectively a male slut." I responded.**

"**Yes; I waited six months for her. I did not even look at another girl in that time. I did as she asked and she could tell because I put the effort into making her time with me worthwhile. I was gagging for it where I had not had it for so long; when we did eventually mate it felt so much better and it forged a bond between us that was unbroken for ten years." Larten answered. **

"**Ok. I did not need that much detail but thanks for your honesty." I replied.**

"**Think nothing of it my love. Let's get some drinks then move on to another venue for the night is young." Larten suggested.**

"**Alright then I will have my usual please with no ice and extra coke." I said (my usual drink was vodka and coke). **

"**Ok. I will have my usual as well." Larten said.**

**Larten's usual drink was rum with a dash of coke and lots of ice. It tended to get him wasted pretty quickly even by vampire standards. Our aim was not to get drunk tonight but to celebrate Arra and her good influence on Larten when he needed it. **

"**Let's have a toast. To Arra may she rest in Paradise in peace." I said.**

"**To Arra I love you and I always will. I miss you like crazy my dark angel. Cheers." Larten added as we drunk our drinks in one gulp. **

**We moved onto another club and after that we went down to the river and we hired a boat with oars. We watched the sunrise and then we retired to bed. We had tried to celebrate Arra's life but it was hard; Larten was getting upset because he missed her so much and I hardly knew her but I did my best to remember her as a good friend and a vampiress who had good standing. **

**We went to bed that day and I was so tired. I had been up for hours and the alcohol had made me really tired also. Larten was upset but he had other things on his mind. **

"**Are you up to mating? I am but I will not bother you if you think that it is wrong." I asked.**

"**Yes alright I do not think that it would be a problem but I want to do to you what I did to Arra when we got together for the first time. Call it role play if you like." Larten explained. **

"**Ok. I do not mind as long as it is good. I miss this part of our relationship." I said.**

"**It will be great. I will make it worthwhile." Larten said as he began to kiss me. He did it slowly at first and then he got deeper and I could feel him working his magic on me. Pretty soon I was on top taking full control of him but he had his way with me and soon he was in control making me hold onto him tighter whilst he pounded the hell out of me which made me really satisfied. Sure enough I was soon pretty vocal and I had such a good time. I always wanted more; even after we had finished mating I still wanted more of him and his love. **

**I was never afraid to ask for more if I wanted it because I needed to satisfy my high libido. The orgasms that I got were always good but sometimes when Larten was on top form they were mind blowing. It felt like a huge wave of this intense sensation was going through me and it just kept on coming making me tingle all over like a bad static charge until I let myself go and then the huge release hit me and I remembered why I loved Larten so much. **

**Sometimes I would want Larten to mate with me so badly that I was practically begging him to release me and feed my carnal hunger. It would not be so bad but vampires tend to be very highly strung and they need to mate. It is a necessity for them because of the inner animal that makes them different from humans. **

**The animal inside makes male vampires strong and they always need to be satisfied sexually; the animal inside the vampiress needs to be fed on blood because females tend to need more blood than males but they are also very alluring and they have the power to make guys do what they want. It is a cross between hypnotism and a siren like quality that makes vampiresses hard to resist and no one can resist the alluring voice of a vampiress be they human or otherwise when she is looking for a mate. **

**I kept Larten coming back for more. Larten always wanted me and even if we had an argument one look into his eyes made me want him to touch me in the way that only he could. It was the same if Larten looked into my eyes I could get him hot with one look that said "take me". I had such a bond with Larten that we did not even need to speak sometimes because one look or one gesture told me everything that I needed to know. **

**I woke up with Larten facing me and he was holding me close like he always did; my head rested next to his and we did look like one entity as we just went together. Sometimes I would wake up and Larten would be practically on top of me. It scared me the first time but after that I got used to him watching me sleep and if he was above me I would sit up, then we would kiss and then roll around a bit or maybe have a bit of foreplay before we got up and went hunting or started our duties in the mountain.**

**Because we were on holiday it meant that we could laze around and stay in bed if we wanted to. Nobody ever disturbed us and we had so much fun; some nights we would not leave the room we would whack the DVD player on and watch movies all day and all night.**

**I could stay up all night and all day if I wanted to but I had to keep my strength up to make sure that I could keep up with Larten because he wanted to mate frequently and that meant that I had to be physically able to cope with it because if it went on for ages which it sometimes did I had to use all of my energy to keep it going until neither of us could go anymore and we literally collapsed and slept for so long afterwards if it was that energetic. **

**I was sad that our holiday had come to an end but we had to return to the mountain. We had been away for three months and we had to get back to the clan and then we had to return to the Cirque Du Freak because we needed to earn some money and the shows were not the same without our act. We added the unique aspect to the show that was required. **

**I wondered about Jodie I hoped that she had got the transplant that she needed in time because she was so young to be so ill like that. Life could be rather cruel to people. **

**We arrived back at the mountain and everybody was happy to see us and we had been away for a long time so we had of work to catch up on. I had a lot of duties to do because I had been away for ages and now I had to pull my weight again because I had missed so much. Larten was the same he also had a fair few duties to catch up on and although we had people filling in for us they had not done all of the work so we had to do the stuff that they had not done. **

**It was not easy keeping the mountain in order even with all of our improvements it still needed a lot of organising to keep it functioning. We had a major security overhaul after the vampaneze had invaded. **

**Everybody had to be checked by the guards which had been increased by several in number; they had new powers to search our quarters, they could also patrol the halls and they could stop any vampire at random to check that they were loyal to the clan; even the Princes got stopped and searched because of what Kurda Smalt had done to our clan. **

**It was scary but it was for the benefit of the clan that we had all of this security. I got searched a couple of times and so did Larten especially when we came back from Vampire Ville. We had to empty our bags and we had to have a body search to make sure that we were not carrying anything that we should not have been carrying; we were of course cleared and our bags were clean but you could not be too careful. **

**I was so glad that I was back at the mountain. I had missed my friends and they had missed me. I had a lot of work to catch up on; I had to help in the kitchen and then I had to go on a hunting trip with my group because we had not hunted for ages and it was our turn to go. After that I had to clean out our quarters because we had not used them for ages where we had been away so they needed painting and decorating and we needed to fix a few things up. **

**Larten and I could not decide on the decoration so we argued over it but in the end we compromised. Larten would decorate one half of the room and I would decorate the other half. We had to live there so we had to make it as nice as possible.**

**Larten did the fixing because I was no good at DIY but he was; my skills were with a paintbrush and a roller. I loved it when it was done; it was like a home away from home. It was luxury and we even had our own fire place; it was great because in the winter it was freezing.**

**Larten had attached a few things to the ceiling and he had some weight lifting equipment set up so that I could train and practice my acrobatics for the Cirque Du Freak show that we performed in.**

**Chapter 19 Back to the Cirque Du Freak**

**After we had spent another few months in the mountain we returned to the Cirque Du Freak. I was surprised to see that everybody had grown up and Evra Von the snake boy was now a married man with his own son Shancus. **

**I saw that Truska and the others had all changed as well. Only Mr Tall and the both of us had not aged at all but I looked different. I saw the Sive and Seersa the twisting twins were no longer teenagers but young women which was scary because we had been away for that long. Even the Wolfman had grown a bit older. Some of his usual brown fur had gone grey and he seemed a lot quieter than what he had been when we had last left him. **

**To my shock when I was setting up the deckchairs for the show that night I saw a woman hanging around the stage. I thought that I recognised her but I was not sure.**

"**Hey you over there what are you up to?" I called out.**

"**Oh I was looking for Larten. Is he around?" The woman asked.**

"**He is in his trailer why are you looking for him?" I asked.**

"**Oh I have not seen him for years and we go a long way back." The woman answered.**

"**Well I am his blessed mate so I can pass a message on for you." I said.**

"**What is a blessed mate?" The woman asked.**

"**It is a vampire term. It is where two vampires basically get married but they call it a blessed mateship." I explained.**

"**So you are Larten's wife?" The woman said.**

"**Yes I am his wife. My name is Madam Crepsley but my friends call me Sarah." I said in reply. **

"**I did not recognise you Sarah. It's Jodie. Do you remember me?" Jodie asked.**

"**Of course I remember you. I see you got your transplant then." I replied.**

"**Yes. I just wanted to catch up with you both. I have come a long way to see you two again." Jodie responded.**

"**Well follow me and put this on." I said as I handed over a back stage pass.**

"**Ok then. It really is great to see you again Sarah." Jodie said.**

"**I am glad to see that you are looking well. How old are you now? You were sixteen when we last met." I asked.**

"**I am thirty now. It has been that long." Jodie replied.**

"**Seriously that long? I will just go and get Larten. Stay here and have a drink on me." I said as Jodie stood at our circus beer tent.**

**I went to get Larten who was training Madam Octa for our new act.**

"**Larten my love, you have a guest. Could you pop along with me to the beer tent please?" I asked when Madam Octa was safely in her terrarium. **

"**Yes of course. Who is my guest?" Larten asked.**

"**Wait and see. You will be quite surprised." I replied as we walked to the beer tent.**

**I saw that Jodie was sitting down with a pint of what looked like lemonade.**

"**Jodie we are here now." I said as Jodie turned around to see us.**

**To my surprise Jodie leapt up out of her seat and she seemed to be really excited and she had a huge grin on her face.**

"**Larten do you remember me?" Jodie asked.**

"**I think so. I believe that we met long ago and if I remember correctly I gave you your first kiss." Larten said.**

"**Yes that is correct. I never forgot it either. You made my head spin. I was just sixteen then but I am thirty now." Jodie said.**

"**So you have travelled all this way to see me. Obviously you know my blessed mate Sarah." Larten said.**

"**Yes of course. How could I forget her?" Jodie laughed.**

"**Are you here for the show?" I asked.**

"**I work here now. Mr Tall liked me so much that he gave me a job. I do the lighting for the acts when they come on stage." Jodie explained.**

"**That sounds so cool. I cannot believe how much that you have changed. Of course we have not aged due to the vampire blood in our veins." I replied.**

"**I wondered why you two look exactly the same. Nothing has changed with you except that you got hitched." Jodie said. **

"**It is so good to see that you are looking well. I am happy that you are working for us now. It makes a change from the usual shit human jobs." I said.**

"**Actually I am not completely human. Mr Tall bestowed a gift upon me. He got somebody to blood me six months ago. I am a half vampiress now but I have no mentor so Evra Von had the idea that maybe you would teach me your ways. I am quite content to stay at the Cirque Du Freak but I need help as you can understand." Jodie explained.**

"**Oh well I am sure that I can teach you a few things. Who blooded you?" I asked intrigued.**

"**Actually I do not know. Mr Tall would not tell me he just let it happen." Jodie explained.**

"**That is so unusual but I guess that he has his reasons. Anyway I will help you out Jodie. What can you do power wise?" I asked.**

"**All of the usual stuff except my blood lust is quite low. I hardly ever get the urge to feed although I feed regularly." Jodie said.**

"**Oh well that is normal. Every vampire has a different blood lust some are higher than others." I explained.**

"**Well I will help you Jodie. I can teach you our ways but it is not easy and eventually you will have to make the journey to the mountain with us to be presented to the clan." Larten explained.**

"**Very well that should not be a problem if you help me to get there. I have heard about the mountain but I have no idea where it is or how to get there." Jodie said.**

"**Do not worry we will prepare you fully for the journey. We go by train normally and then by bus until we go on foot to the actual summit where we enter the halls and then we are there." Larten said.**

"**That sounds like a real adventure. I am so looking forward to my extended life now. You will have to teach me everything that you know. I have no weapons either so that will have to be sorted." Jodie said.**

"**All in good time Jodie. We have centuries ahead to sort things like that out. Anyway we had better go through our lighting queues for our new act." I laughed as we left the beer tent for the stage. We had a couple of hours to work on our act before we had to go on and perform it. I was grateful that I had put in a lot of extra work because our new routine looked great but it was very hard to perform. We always changed our routine because it gave the audience something to marvel at. If we had an audience who had seen the show before then they would get a surprise if they saw a different routine and we were all about pleasing the audience. **

**I was happy that I was back at the Cirque Du Freak and Larten was glad to be back to his normal routine. We needed the work because we were both skint. The holiday was very expensive and it wiped out the last of our savings but it was so worth it. Jodie could take care of herself but she needed us to teach her how to be a good vampiress because she had no mentor to teach her as where Larten had taught me everything that I needed to know. **

**We went on stage and it was brilliant. We had a packed crowd to perform to and tonight Mr Tall had introduced us as;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Larten Crepsley, his wife Sarah and Madam Octa their performing spider." This was different but pretty accurate. **

**I did my acrobatic routine and then I did a few flips and tumbles before I played the flute and Larten did his act with the spider. **

**It went really well. I loved performing on the stage and when it was a packed auditorium I had more reason to do a great show because there were more people to impress. **

**I loved putting on shows for the public. My favourite move was walking on the balance beam; it was very thin but very strong. I could walk along it and do all kinds of flips and rolls on it using my supreme vampire balance and agility. I was also rather flexible which helped. It took a lot of training though even for a vampire it was not the easiest piece of equipment to use. It looked stunning though when I had my costume on and I looked like a proper gymnast or at least a professional circus performer. **

**I always had a red spotlight on me to make the crystals on my outfit shine even more; when I was in this red light it made my eyes flash and I was alluring to all of the male audience members who started fidgeting and coughing when I came on stage. The audience always wanted to meet me and I was happy to meet them but I could see that they were allured by me so I had to be careful because I did not want to put myself at risk and I did not want to reveal who I really was. I acted shy but happy to sign autographs and answer questions before Mr Tall came and ushered them away. **

**I overheard the audience members say stuff as they were leaving like;**

"**Sarah is so cool. She is so lucky. I wish I could perform like that." And another said;**

"**Sarah's husband is a very lucky guy. I wish that I got to sleep next to her. Can you imagine her in bed?" **

**I was flattered but I had to be careful. I knew that most audiences were fine but some may have taken things a bit far so I was always very cautious and Larten was never far away especially as I had already been abducted once but no human could possibly do that because I was so much stronger than them and I was so quick that they could not hold me; also I could snap most chains and ropes with ease so it would be pointless in trying but still I did not want them to try because I did not want to hurt anybody but if I had to then I would kill but only as a last resort. **

**I loved being at the Cirque Du Freak. It rocked because I had always been a performer and to be the centre of attention with all eyes on me was a dream come true. **

**Of course the only eyes that I looked at back were Larten's; he had this way of making me go all funny inside just by looking at me and sometimes on stage I got the urge to run over to him and kiss him but I could not so I had to wait until we were off stage and our act was over. Now that we had Jodie to take care of it meant that we did not get as much time alone as what we had enjoyed previously but we still made time to flit off and effectively disappear for a night or two so that we could be together and reinforce our bond. **

**It was hard for us but Mr Tall had heard complaints from the other circus performers because some nights we got a bit carried away and it was quite vocal and as a result nobody slept so we had been instructed to either keep the volume down or go off and do what we had to do. Luckily Larten knew of lots of woodland and he had shacks everywhere that were built for us to be together in.**

**We tried hard to keep the noise down but it was hard because it was just too good and now that I could take it Larten did not hold back; he made it hard, fast and good and as a result it was never long before my screams were heard along with a fair bit of shouting of each other's names out loud when I had tonnes of Larten's fluids ripping through me making the animal inside me come alive and when that sensation hit me I just had to go for it. **

**It was lucky that I could not get pregnant because I would have been pregnant several times over and then some but vampires are barren so they cannot get pregnant or make someone pregnant. **

**Mr Tall gave us two nights off a week so that we could go and be together and on those nights he took over Jodie. Mr Tall trained her and he made sure that she was well looked after whilst we were away. **

**We stayed with the Cirque Du Freak for many months because the mountain got boring after a while as where the circus was exciting and because we never knew where we would be performing next it was fun to literally travel the world, astound and terrify audiences all over the UK and abroad. **

**One night Larten got a message from his old mentor Seba saying that one of the Princes had died and that we were required to attend his funeral as were all clan members. Luckily the Cirque Du Freak was going near to the mountain so we separated at the new camp ground and with Jodie in tow we set off back to the mountain to pay our respects to Paris Skyle who was well over seven hundred years old. He had endured a long and eventful life and he died in his sleep so it was not as though he had suffered but he had seen many things; he told us that he met William Shakespeare and he had given Bram Stoker the idea for Dracula.**

**We were not sure if it was true but nobody ever doubted the word of a vampire Prince, especially one as respected as Paris Skyle. I was sad for the loss of Paris but because I had not known him that well I would not miss him as much as Larten would. The funeral of a Prince was always taken seriously with every clan member attending and everybody was in black mourning robes. I had to borrow a set as I had none I had worn colour to Arra's funeral as that was her request. **

**I stood with Larten and I could feel the sadness in the air; some vampires were finding it hard to keep their emotions in check. It was seen as weakness to show emotion in public so quite a lot of the clan retired to their quarters to let it out as it were Larten included. I stayed in the halls but when Seba came to fetch me I had to go with him. Larten had been asking for me so as his blessed mate I had to retire to our quarters also. **

**I did not feel like crying because I did not know Paris but I felt the loss like everybody did. Without Paris the clan would not be the same, he had done so much in his seven hundred years and now he was watching us from Paradise. It was a very sad occasion to introduce Jodie to the clan but she fitted in ok except she was no good with death; she was very emotional as it had hit her hard though she had not intended it to and she stood there during the funeral with silent tears flowing from her eyes and Jodie was not the only one to cry silently practically all of the clan had wet eyes at some point or another during the funeral let alone when they were in their quarters. **

**For those who felt like it there was food provided and then we held the traditional life celebrations which gave thanks to Paris for his time that he devoted to all of us. In the beginning he had helped me out and when Larten was not around he had been my guide so that I did not get lost as much of the mountain had not been explored at that time. **

**I was grateful for the guiding hand that Paris had given me when Larten had been busy with his duties. We had not been together much in the beginning as we had to settle in and we had to organise things; the only time that we had together was when we were in our quarters alone to sleep the day away before we had become mates officially. However we still mated as it strengthened our bond and we did love each other even though in the beginning we had to keep our relationship and our sessions quiet because of Arra and as her quarters were not far from ours we had to time it so that she would not find out and lay into me before we had been introduced properly.**

**I was very sad for quite a while after the funeral and Larten was the same way. He was not as sad as what he had been when Arra had been killed. When that had taken place he was inconsolable for weeks and I cried because he was hurting and it hurt me to see him hurting so deeply. **

**I will not deny that in private Larten and I both shed tears for Prince Paris because we would miss him and Larten had been fond of him as he had been like a second mentor when Seba had not been around to guide him and to teach him. It was not often that you got to see a vampire show their emotions but when you did see get to see it; it was not a pleasant thing because it was such a sad occasion and it affected everybody. **

**Neither Larten nor I slept very well for the next few days as we were still upset and we found it hard to perform our duties without bursting into tears every time Paris's name was mentioned and though I did not know him that well I still felt his loss and it was a tough time for us all. **

**I remember clearly that one night Larten was almost crying but he was trying hard not to and I was the same. I remember looking into Larten's eyes and seeing them slightly wet but mine were flowing then he did something that I never thought that he would do; he pulled me close and we buried our heads into each other's chests and cried a lot silently but it was still the most emotion that I had seen from my mate in a long time.**

**I was happy to get back on the Bars but no one wanted to duel so I was really bored until Seba hopped up onto the Bars and he challenged me. I had never duelled Seba before so it was exciting. **

"**Sarah I challenge you. Do you accept my challenge?" Seba asked me.**

"**Yes I accept your challenge. I will not take it easy on you." I replied.**

"**I would not expect you to take it easy on me. Just duel me." Seba said.**

"**Ok then Seba let's duel." I said then I asked;**

"**Where is Larten? Have you seen my blessed mate?"**

"**Larten is in your quarters. I will go and get him." Vanez called up to us.**

**So we waited for Vanez to return. We could not duel before then because Vanez was the referee. **

**Soon enough Vanez returned with Larten who stood right at the front to watch his ex-mentor duel his blessed mate. **

"**Duellists are you ready?" Vanez asked us.**

"**Yes." I said.**

"**Bring it on." Seba replied.**

"**Duellists salute." So we knocked our staves together.**

"**Begin." Vanez called out and we began to duel. Seba was so quick that I found it hard to dodge his shots but I just managed it. He was like Arra with his speed but his combos were relatively basic compared to mine. I used my acrobatic skills to my full advantage, I flipped over Seba and I brought my staff down on his head as I went over the top of him, I twisted round and did the same move in quick succession. Seba dropped to his knees stunned and bleeding badly from his head. I thought that I had fractured Seba's skull. **

"**Enough. I surrender. The victory is yours Sarah." Seba said.**

"**Thank you Seba." I replied. We shook hands and then Seba passed out. We carried him to the medical wing and the medic patched him up as best as he could because Seba's skull was indeed fractured right down the middle. It was a severe injury but that is the risk that you take when you step up onto the Bars.**

**I felt bad but Seba had challenged me and he had fallen so it was not like I had done anything wrong. All of my moves had been legal and everyone knew that I had been well trained. **

**I had such a great time in the mountain but it was a shame that we had to be there for a funeral; when we returned to the Cirque Du Freak we had to catch up with our friends because we had not performed for ages and people missed us. Mr Tall had said that the show was not the same without us. We really had to stay with the show for a long time to make up for all the time that we had missed…**

**Three years later**

**For the next three years we travelled the world with the Cirque Du Freak and we performed all over the world. My favourite destination was Romania. They loved us out there because of all their vampire legends and because of their association with demons we were always performing to a packed crowd. Although we did not speak Romanian they got the jist of what we were trying to communicate in our acts. **

**I was a common talking point for the Romanian crowds. I was told by Mr Tall that the audience were always saying how stunning I was and how I had to be a demon because no human could do what I could do. I liked the mystery but one night I was discovered by accident. **

**It happened when one audience member had managed to sneak backstage and she had caught Larten and I kissing by our trailer; that was not the problem the problem was that we had fed and we were sharing blood between us as we kissed and when she shouted at us we jumped for we had been too engrossed in our kiss to spot her, the shock had made us cough up some of the blood and of course it was on our clothes and on my mouth. That was enough for the woman to start screaming things in Romanian that were roughly translated as;**

"**Vampires, demons help someone the legends are true. Help there are vampires here run and grab your flaming torches." This was shouted out loud and the whole camp heard it. **

**The sheer noise was enough to disturb the whole camp who were asleep as it was late for them but for us it was early. Larten wasted no time; he moved like lightning and he grabbed the woman around her throat, I heard it snap and she slumped to the floor dead. We cleaned up the mess and buried the body just before Mr Tall arrived and saw what had happened. **

"**What has happened here?" Mr Tall asked.**

"**We were sharing blood after a feed and a woman saw us. She started screaming which woke up the whole camp so I snapped her neck and buried her over there. She must have sneaked past security, seen us doing what we were doing, panicked and then she did what she thought was best but now she is dead and it is my fault." Larten explained as he pointed out the woman's final resting place. **

"**You did what you had to do Larten. We should move away from here and go to a new camp ground." Mr Tall said decisively as he left.**

"**Yes I think that would be best. We have been in Romania long enough." I agreed. I turned around to see Larten with his head in his hands.**

"**What is up? Are you Ok?" I asked.**

"**No I am not ok. I should not have acted like that. I should have knocked that woman out instead of killing her but it is too late now. I killed an innocent human in cold blood. I am a murderer." Larten said.**

"**Do not think like that. You made a split second decision to prevent further trouble. If that woman had lived she could have caused no end of problems and as hard as it is to hear you did the right thing." I replied.**

"**I guess so but I still regret it. Anyway we had better pack up as we are moving on." Larten said.**

"**Yes. Is there anything that I can do to help?" I asked.**

"**Just pack up our clothes and find Jodie as she needs to help us out." Larten replied.**

"**Ok. Jodie where are you?" I called out as I left to find her.**

"**I'm over here with Evra." Jodie called back.**

"**Larten needs your help packing. We are moving on tonight because of that kerfuffle." I explained.**

"**Oh right; give me a moment I am in a bit of a tangle." Jodie said.**

**I poked my head around the flap of the tent to see that Evra's snake had coiled itself around Jodie's body and it was not budging. **

"**Let me help. Evra you take the head, I will take the tail and we will uncoil it together." I said as I took hold of the snake's tail. **

"**Alright let's give it a go." I said as I carefully began to unwind the snake. It was not long but it was strong and rather thick muscled. We carefully unwound the snake and Jodie left to find Larten whilst I helped Evra put his snake back into its vivarium which it went in whilst we were travelling from place to place. **

**It was a shame that we had to move on so soon but it was for the safety of the whole camp. We could not risk being discovered and persecuted or worse driven out of the campsite because for many of the performers they were only safe with the Cirque du Freak and without it they would spend the rest of their lives on the street as nobody would take them in out of fear or out of sheer arrogance. They were seen as second class citizens in many countries and they were treated accordingly. **

**I was glad to be out of Romania because although we normally got a good crowd it could be cold and the weather was not always the best. Also we had to put up with vampire fanatics who were desperate to become vampires but they were not really up to standard. We got asked frequently by people if we were vampire fans or if we knew of any real vampires and it got tedious. We of course denied all knowledge but we could see the passion of some of these people who had done everything that they could to look vampiric down to the pale skin and some even gave themselves scars to look more authentic. **

**In the end these vampire wannabes had no knowledge of our ways and they could not match up to our skills and as for our way of life it scared them because they were too used to human comforts, human jobs, modern society and human technology that we had to go without. **

**I was happy that we had moved into the Czech Republic and around the other Baltic States. I liked Eastern Europe and its culture and its traditional way of living. Ukraine was the nicest place that I had been to in a while but the Czech Republic citizens were very welcoming and we felt at home. They did not have a big vampire culture unlike Romania, they were more into zombies and werewolves as that was their culture based upon all the forests that they had in their country. **

**I loved the food and Larten spoke the language so we got around easily and some people spoke English anyway so I could communicate roughly but it was easier to let Larten do the talking. He had travelled around Eastern Europe with Seba when he was his assistant before he joined the Cirque Du Freak. Then Larten and Seba travelled to the mountain. This was a long time before Larten met Arra. I was quite able to get around the town with Larten acting as my translator before we had to perform that evening. I spoke a little Russian but Russian is not much use in the Czech Republic or in Ukraine but it was spoken in Estonia and some of the other states. We went to Albania, we also performed in Bulgaria and Poland then finally we ended up in Germany and we were the nearest that we had been to England in many years.**

**I missed England so badly. I loved the culture, the food and the people as I had been born and brought up there. Larten had also been born there but it was very different when he had been my age. He came from a poor family where food was scarce and he had to work from a young age in a silk factory where he had been at the mercy of a very cruel man who had killed his friend Vur Horston. **

**That is where Larten got his alias from and that is how his hair had been dyed orange permanently; his boss had dyed the employee's heads different colours depending on what part of the factory they worked in. You started at dawn and finished when the sun was setting. It was awful and it paid little as well.**

**Larten had been on the run for stealing food when he met Seba who had rescued him and given him a place to sleep then Larten became blooded and that was it then; his life changed for the better and then nearly two hundred years passed and Larten spent them travelling around the world, meeting people and fighting. I already knew about the several ladies that Larten had been involved with and that was when he was still young so there must have been hundreds that had a connection to Larten in some way. **

**I got the shock of my life when I walked into a book store and found a rather old diary on one of the shelves. I opened it out of interest and I bought it. It was written in German so I had to get it translated but two words kept cropping up and those two words were Larten Crepsley. **

**I took it back to Larten who was also very surprised when I presented it to him. It did not take long for Larten to translate it for me but I had to help him read some of it as his reading was ok but not that great. **

"**Can you explain this?" I asked with a look of intrigue on my face.**

"**Yes. I never thought that I would see this again. It belonged to a lady who I was with for a while when I was but a young man." Larten stated.**

"**It sounds like an account of two people who were in love or at least it is a story of a young girl who had begged you to blood her and get her away from her abusive family." I said.**

"**You could see it like that. I did not know that this lady had been so detailed in her account of our time together. I was quite smitten but Seba said that we had to move on and I never saw her again. I missed her so badly and then before I knew it I found her grave and then I had to move on to pastures new." Larten explained ruefully.**

"**Who was this lady?" I asked.**

"**A lady named Beatrice." Larten said simply.**

**I then proceeded to read an extract from the diary…**

"…**Larten came and visited me this evening. I was so happy to be reunited with my love once more that I nearly collapsed into his arms where I was overwhelmed. We shared a bottle of wine and then we went out. I begged Larten to blood me but he refused saying that I was too young so he made love to me instead. I could not have given my innocence to a more deserving man. I have his cloak wrapped around me as I write in this book. If Larten ever learns to read I hope that he will not mind me writing down our time together so that he can remember me for years to come. **

**I hope that I will be blooded one day and married but I will have to see what is in store for me. **

**Alas it is late and need to sleep. This was written on the seventh day of September 1875. "**

"**Ok that is one detailed account. You never mentioned this Beatrice before." I said.**

"**That is because I did not want to hurt anymore. Beatrice died young and I could have saved her by blooding her but I refused. She was sixteen, she caught cholera and she succumbed to the disease." Larten explained.**

"**I see. You have not had much luck with ladies have you?" I asked.**

"**Well not really. I learned from that mistake and from that time on I only had one night stands so as the human girls in question did not get too attached to me and so that I did not get attached to them because they would grow old and die while I was still young." Larten replied sadly.**

"**Oh right. You have this diary now. I can read more out of it if you like." I offered.**

"**I think that it would be good to know what Beatrice thought about me." Larten said.**

"**Ok I will read another two extracts." I said so I did.**

"…**Larten has not visited me for a week. I am sure that he cannot have forgotten me already. I fear that I may be with child but I am unsure. I will have to wait and see if I have my monthly bleed. I hope that Larten and I will marry soon regardless of whether I am with child or not for he is the best man and the kindest person that I have met in my short life. I am but sixteen but I feel a lot older and if I am to be blooded I hope it will be soon because I have a desire to travel and to follow Larten wherever he goes as his loving wife and mother of his son hopefully.**

**I hope that Larten visits me tonight or tomorrow because I miss having somebody to talk to and somebody to sleep next to. Besides he must come back for his cloak that I still sleep under each night…**

**This was written on the fifteenth day of September 1875."**

"…**Larten came to me tonight. He brought me a gift of a necklace. I am sure that I cannot be deserving of such a piece of jewellery. It sparkles in the light and it is said to be a real gemstone. I am not with child as Larten explained that he cannot have children due to his blood. I am upset about that but at least I have him. I asked him again if we were to marry and he said maybe we would if I was a bit older and therefore able to be blooded. I hope that he does not wait too long as I am not well. I think that I have a fever and a cold but with no money I dare not call the doctor out.**

**I love Larten so much and he says that he loves me but if he did then we would have announced our engagement by now. I fear that I have not long left for this life and shortly I will be watching over Larten from the heavens. I hope that I live long enough to be married and then Larten can save me. I know that his blood can save me. Feelings inside have told me it to be so…**

**This was written on the seventeenth day of September 1875."**

"**I can understand how Beatrice felt. I am glad that I found this. I am dying to know about your past. I find it fascinating." I said after I finished reading the extracts.**

"**I should have blooded Beatrice when I had the chance because then she would have survived the cholera. I called the doctor but he could do nothing for her so she slipped away and I did not know until I returned and found her pauper's grave in the local churchyard. I was so upset but I could do nothing so I moved on with Seba and I did not look back. Beatrice was always in my thoughts and it took years before I forgot about her not that I wanted to forget but it hurt me to think of how I let her die when I could have saved her. Seba made me move on and I resented him for a long time but when I met the other ladies that I slept with I forgot my pain and that is why I was such a promiscuous young vampire but I am not like that now as you know." Larten explained.**

"**I see. I guess that Arra helped you get over that as well." I mused.**

"**No actually I never mentioned Beatrice to Arra. It was one thing that I wanted to be kept private between Seba and I but now that you know I trust that you will not say anything to anybody." Larten said. **

"**Of course I will not say anything. I hope that you are glad that you have me by your side because I am not likely to die or abandon you anytime soon. I need you and you need me. We are meant to be together Larten I can feel it. I am pleased that I found that diary now. You can keep it to remember Beatrice by. I think that she would have wanted you to have it." I said.**

"**I think that is true. I love you Sarah. I truly do but I have a past and much of it is dark. I have seen things and I have experienced things that no one should have to go through vampire or not. I have been around the world and I have fought in many wars but I have always managed to come out of it unscathed. My darkest nights were spent in Opium Dens and in taverns. I was a rebellious and uncontrollable vampire when I was first blooded but with Seba's guidance I was able to beat my addictions and I have got rid of most of my personal demons but a few haunting memories remain." Larten admitted. **

"**Well for every bad memory I am sure that you have many good ones. You must have a few happy memories to counteract the bad ones." I said.**

"**I have lots of happy memories. I have lots to be thankful for and I owe Seba big time for all of his help and his guidance. I thank the gods every night for you because without you where would I be? It is us against the world and we are winning Sarah." Larten said. **

"**I am glad that I have been able to help you. I have been like a calming influence on you and I have supported you through thick and thin. I never gave up on you even when you abandoned me for Samantha I still came back to you although I had every right not to after what you did to me." I said.**

"**I understand that Sarah and I am so happy that you did come back to me but after my conduct I was surprised. I asked you to become my blessed mate to show you and the clan exactly what I feel for you and I also hoped to make up for my conduct because I treated you appallingly in the nineteen months that we were apart. I could never leave you now though not even if the world was offered to me on a plate. I am deeply attached to you and without you by my side I feel like one half of me is missing." Larten explained. **

"**That is so sweet. You can be so loving at times. I feel incredibly honoured and I know that I have said that before but I mean every word of it. Without you I have no heart, no soul and no body because you own all of those things. I gave them to you and so far you have taken good care of them." I responded then I continued to say;**

"**I am so lucky. I look at my rings and my bracelet all the time and even when you are not there I can feel your presence all around me and it is like no matter where we are we will never be separated." **

"**I am the same. I look at my ring when we are apart and it reminds of what I get to come home to every night. It reminds me of how fortunate I am that you took me back and it also reminds me to stay faithful to you not that I need reminding of my duties to you my beloved blessed mate." Larten replied.**

**At this point we realised how late we were for our performance so Mr Tall put us on last to close the show with a dazzling display of acrobatics and a new trapeze act that I performed with Sive and Seersa the twisting twins. **

**After my first act with the twins Mr Tall scolded me for being late as it was highly unprofessional but Mr Tall let me off and I returned on stage to shouts for more from the audience even though the show was supposed to have been over. Larten came on with me for my second act. I performed a few stunts with Larten's help and that was enough to send the crowd into a standing ovation.**

**We did a very dangerous balancing act whilst swinging from the trapeze and it went really well. We did one final act on the high wire and then that really was the end of the show for that night. I was exhausted because swinging on the trapeze used a lot of energy. Being on the high wire and walking along it on my hands with my feet in the air was very difficult but my landing was the most dangerous bit. I had to flip off and land with my hands on top of Larten's shoulders in a hand stand position before I finally waved to the crowd whilst still keeping my balance and then I could finally put my feet back on the ground. **

**I could not believe how much the crowd had enjoyed our act. It was like a normal circus act but I was so fast and so accurate I could vault up onto the high wire and it was like being on the Bars but it was a lot narrower. I could vault into the air from the ground, grab hold of the wire and pull myself up. Then I could dismount and land in some kind of gymnastic finishing pose. **

**It was amazing to watch because I was jumping like forty foot in to the air straight up. I looked like a human kangaroo but obviously I was not human. **

**I was happy that the show had gone well; Larten and I trained hard to get the timings perfect because one false move would spell disaster for both of us and Madam Octa who was also on stage not to mention the audience. **

**Being in Eastern Europe we took a short trip to Moscow in the winter and then we went to a city called Siberia. The plan was to go ice skating on a lake called Moskva-reka. It was absolutely freezing! It was minus 20 degrees. We bought a pair of skates and we tried it out. The ice was thick and it was snowing heavily but I loved snow and our clothing kept us warm anyway. We had fur lined cloaks on and fur lined thick boots that we wore until we put our skates on. **

**I had never skated before but Larten was an experienced skater as it was one of Arra's favourite hobbies. It was something that Arra looked forward to every winter. She would flit to the nearest lake with Larten and they would spend all night on the ice dancing and they looked like professionals. **

**Sometimes it would draw a human crowd who would gather round to watch the show. It brought back memories for Larten who had not been skating for a long time. He remembered all of the lifts though and I spent more time in the air than I did on the ice. I learned quickly and soon I was going around the lake at speed and I even tried to do a double toe loop and a couple of other skating moves that I had seen on television. **

**It was such a fun night out and it made change from the usual night out which normally involved us in a pub with a lot of vodka and it nearly always ended in embarrassment. **

**I was quite good at skating around the lake but it took me quite a while to get good and it and to get my balance right because my vampire speed made me almost lose it and a couple of times I went flying when I jumped up to perform a trick. I vaulted into the air and I landed in a pile of snow because the sheer force had made me land the trick hard and it had made me skid into the pile of snow. **

**I was not bad though and Larten showed off some of his skills and then he taught me a routine that we could perform to; we only needed music so I got my battery powered IPod and speakers out and covered them over so that the snow would not get to them. We were soon ice dancing to a few tunes and we noticed a small crowd of night walkers watching us. We performed our routine and then everyone was skating around and performing tricks. We moved onto another frozen pond that was bigger as we needed more room to skate. I did not do much skating because Larten kept scooping me up and performing lifts with me including the very dangerous head banger lift and the necklace lift. It was scary but it made my adrenaline pulse and I had total faith in Larten. He would not drop me even when he balanced me above his head with one hand holding me only. **

**After a couple of hours of ice dancing we went for a feed because I was cold and I was thirsty so warm blood was what I needed. We both had a feed and then we returned to the trailer because the sun was rising and we were shattered. **

**I had such a good time on the ice and I loved ice dancing. We got quite a crowd and when they were watching us it made me feel great although admittedly I did not do much skating. I spent practically the whole time in the air which was so much fun because Larten was showing off his great strength to everyone cared to watch us. **

**I had watched ice dancing on TV when I was human and I had always dreamed of doing it for real and now I was it was amazing. I wanted a sparkly costume and the full works but it was freezing so I decided to ask Larten if we could find a proper skating rink indoors and then we could hire the rink for a couple of hours so that we could practice alone. I was dying to wear a proper skating costume. I wanted one that was red with gold and red sparkly crystals all over it. **

"**Can I get an ice dancing costume please?" I asked.**

"**What do you mean costume? You would freeze out there if not for our fur cloaks." Larten replied; he sounded agitated.**

"**I want to go to a proper skating rink indoors and wear a proper ice dance costume like they do on TV." I explained.**

"**You mean like Torvil and Dean?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes exactly that. I want to look the part and I am sure that you would look good in red Lycra with sparkles on it. It would show off your muscles and we would look professional." I said.**

"**But we are not professional skaters we are vampires and circus performers. However if you want to do this then I can see no harm in it. We need a hobby besides duelling on the Bars." Larten replied.**

"**I agree. How much money do we have? It can be quite expensive to get those costumes." I asked tentatively.**

"**We have a few hundred roubles but we get paid tonight so we should have enough to get a couple of costumes as it were." Larten said. He did not sound excited at the prospect of wearing red Lycra with sparkles on it. **

"**Alright cool. I will pop to the shop tomorrow before the sun gets too high in the sky. You may have to come with me to be measured up because they make the costumes from scratch and I would hate to get something if it did not fit or if you did not like it because there are several styles to choose from." I explained.**

"**Alright that is fine. We will flit there tomorrow but right now I am going to bed. We have a long night ahead of us. You can pick up our wages and then come back here and join me." Larten said.**

"**Are you ok? You seem a bit off with me." I asked.**

"**I am ok but I am tired and the idea of wearing sparkly costumes to ice dance when our normal clothing is fine does not appeal to me." Larten said.**

"**Oh right. You have no problem wearing our Cirque Du Freak costumes. They are worse trust me." I laughed.**

"**I can see your point. What was Truska thinking?" Larten asked me whilst trying not to laugh.**

"**I have no idea. The idea of wearing that awful neon green suit when you only wear red must have been torture. Lucky Mr Tall swapped it over. My outfit was worse. You saw that canary yellow feathered monstrosity did you not?" I laughed. **

"**I promised us that we would never let Truska pick out our costumes ever again. Can you imagine what she would put on us for ice dancing? Some hot pink number I imagine with feathers or something along those lines." Larten said. **

"**Ugh no way it is not happening! I refuse to wear anything like that." I said.**

"**I could not agree more. Maybe we should dress Truska up as revenge for her awful taste in clothing." Larten suggested.**

"**Definitely, this Christmas we will dress her up as a Christmas tree or something." I said laughing.**

"**Yes that would be a sight. Truska in green with those ball-ball things hanging off of her and a big hat with a star on it and lights wrapped around her." Larten smirked.**

"**We are so doing that this year. We can get photos too because she shows up on film but we do not." I replied with a huge grin on my face. **

"**That will be our gift to her, a Christmas tree outfit. You had better go and get our wages." Larten said.**

"**Yes I guess that I should go now. See you a bit later my love." I said as I left to go and get our wages from Mr Tall. **

**I arrived and I picked up two brown envelopes with a whole load of notes in. Mr Tall paid his performers well and if they put on a great show then they got a bonus. I had earned my bonus for the display on the high wire that I put on.**

**I told Mr Tall about my plans for Truska and our idea.**

"**What do you think?" I asked.**

"**Brilliant. That would be a sight to see." Mr Tall replied.**

"**So you do not mind?" I asked.**

"**No, it would brighten up the camp and it would save me having to buy a tree." Mr Tall sniggered.**

"**Alright then, see you later." I said and I left to go to bed now that I was a couple of thousand roubles better off than what I had been earlier. **

**I returned to the trailer and I snuggled down in my bed after I had put the money in the safe that we had. I thought that Larten was already asleep so I tried hard not to wake him when I got into bed. I was tired also because the ice dancing had made me worn out. I slipped my night dress on and crept into bed slowly and quietly. I thought that Larten was asleep but he wasn't he was thinking with his eyes shut. He heard me get into bed so he turned and faced me then he spoke,**

"**Did you get our wages?"**

"**Yes I put them in the safe I thought that you were asleep." I replied.**

"**No I was merely thinking about you and what I can do to you to get you excited." Larten said.**

"**Well I am shattered. I have barely any energy so I cannot do much to you." I responded.**

"**Oh right. You would prefer not to mate then?" Larten asked me, he sounded upset.**

"**I did not say that. I just said that I cannot do much so you would need to take the lead as it were. My legs hurt, my back hurts and my whole body hurts. Those lifts were fun but that head banger lift made me really push myself and I did my high wire act which also put pressure on my body. If we do mate just be careful. I cannot cope with you at your full power I need to take it slow." I explained.**

"**Very well I can take it slowly if you like. I just need to mate. I have been getting urges frequently but as we have been busy I have not had time to whisk you away and satisfy my desires." Larten said.**

"**Why did you not say anything? I could have got the night off if you had of told me." I asked.**

"**I was trying to control myself because I did not want to hurt you and then prevent you from skating." Larten said.**

"**Oh right. We had better get on with it then if you have been getting urges. It is my duty to satisfy your carnal hunger. I need it too but I am always scared to ask for it. I wait for you to initiate it and then I do my best to make you happy." I said.**

**Larten did not reply he just kissed me and then we got into it. It was slow and gentle but it was so good. I loved it so much and the only bad thing that happened was that my night dress got slashed into pieces and it was completely destroyed. It was the fourth night dress that had been slashed into pieces by Larten so I had to buy yet another new one but when the inner animal came out Larten had next to no control over himself, he was only interested in one thing and that was making me scream no matter what the cost was. I had to return the favour but that came naturally. All I had to do was get on top and rock my hips in some kind of rhythm so that we both got some kind of feeling out of it before we let ourselves go and let the power take us to a new level of sensation. **

**I loved it but it was hard to maintain my position because I was so tired and exhausted. I did my best but it was not as good as it should have been. I was angry that Larten had slashed my night dress because it meant that I had to buy another one. I had bruises on my shoulders that looked like hand prints where Larten had been a bit rough with me even though he said that he would be gentle which also annoyed me because they hurt when I moved.**

**When I spoke to Larten later that night I was quite upset with him. We went to the sports shop to get our ice dancing outfits sorted and we spoke barely two words to each other. I went behind the screen and I got measured up. I was embarrassed because of the bruises and because of the bites that I had on me but the lady said nothing about it to me. I think that she had seen marks and bruised people before. **

**I picked my costume style and that was it really. It was like a dancing leotard but it had long sleeves on it. Larten had one that was similar but it had short sleeves and it had trousers as where mine had a skirt at the bottom. We could pick them up in a couple of days' time when they had been made for us. They were not cheap either but I had insisted upon it and Larten owed me for what he had done to me the previous night. **

**The next thing that I did was to buy myself another night dress that was hopefully not going to get slashed into pieces. I was so angry that Larten had slashed my night dress. It was a really nice one too with lace and it was made out this satin type material. He had slashed it and then he ripped it off of me to expose my flesh when we had been in bed. **

**In revenge I made Larten buy me the most expensive night dress that the shop had and then I made him buy me new shoes as well because there is nothing like a bit of retail therapy to make you feel better after you have been upset. **

"**That is nearly all of my wages spent on you. Sarah you must control yourself. You know how much money we owe people because our blessing was not cheap and neither is your taste in clothing." Larten scolded me.**

"**Well you owe me for last night. You slashed that night dress into pieces so you should replace it and as for the shoes I wanted some. I am enjoying some retail therapy to get over you upsetting me. You owe me. Did you see the bruises that you gave me? I have hand shaped bruises on my shoulders from yesterday where you were too rough." I said angrily.**

"**No I did not see them. Was I really that rough? I was trying to be gentle but you know how I get when I am with you." Larten said.**

"**I know exactly what you get like so that is why you owe me. I am in a lot of pain right now. Every inch of me hurts and I am covered in bruises and bites thanks to you." I replied.**

"**I apologise. I lost control of myself. I had not intended to go that far. I guess the adrenaline in my body meant that I did not notice how rough I was being." Larten replied.**

"**Well you will have to patch me up later. I need some of these wounds sorted out as they are quite bad. I need some of that salve that you put on bruises to reduce the swelling." I said.**

"**I am truly sorry though I had no idea what I had done and I will of course patch you up if it is required." Larten said as we returned to our trailer.**

"**You realise that I cannot perform tonight because I am so sore I doubt that I could concentrate on my act." I said.**

"**I will speak to Mr Tall." Larten said as he started to patch up my bruised and battered body. I thought that my body was 40% bruises and bites and the rest of me was scars and a small amount of skin that was unaffected by anything. I went to Mr Tall's van to show him how damaged I was and he could clearly see that I was not up to performing so he shifted the performance rota to fill in the gap that I had left by not performing. I was too bruised to go on stage.**

**No amount of make-up would cover my wounds so I had to wear bandages and clothing that covered all of my body instead of the usual clothing that I wore which showed off some flesh but not a lot. **

**I was still upset with Larten. I watched the show from the performer's box where we waited if we were not performing or if we wanted to watch the show. I sat in the centre at the front so that I got the best view. I watched in awe because there were a few acts that I had not seen as they were new to the show. **

**Mr Tall was always bringing on new performers. Now that Evra Von's children were big enough they went on stage with him and they were part of the act, we had other new acts including a woman who could click her fingers and by doing so she could start a fire and there was a man who could make ice come out of his mouth. All he had to do was suck in some air and blow it out as ice cubes. It was brilliant. **

**I watched Larten's act. He had not performed alone for a long time so he just did his old style flute act with Madam Octa. It was good and the best part was where he got Madam Octa to spin a web over his mouth and then he went on with his usual show except at the end when Madam Octa was safely in her cage he looked up at me and he said to the audience;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen before I finish my act tonight I would like to give a shout out to my lovely blessed mate Sarah who is in the audience tonight. She should be on stage but she is not well so I would like to say get well my love and I am so sorry." Then Larten bowed and he left the stage but a huge spot light was on me so I had to stand up and wave to the audience and that was the end of the show.**

**I was embarrassed but I had expected Larten to do something like that so that I would not be left out completely. I was lucky that vampires have accelerated healing powers because I knew that I could not miss another show. **

**I went to bed early because I needed to heal but before I went to bed I had a hot shower because I knew that it would help my muscles to recover quicker. I wanted to try on my ice dance outfit but it was not ready and I would have to wait until I had healed fully before I ventured onto the ice again. **

**I was shattered even though I had not done anything all night. I could not even hunt because I was so tired so I sent Larten out to hunt for me because I needed to feed and I needed a good meal too.**

**I had not been taking care of myself because I had been so busy with my duties and my act that I had neglected to feed or cook anything. I had been living on energy drinks and a bit of tinned food that I had so I was quite weak by vampire standards. That is why Larten had bruised me so badly, it was not him entirely it was me as well where I had not had the energy to withstand Larten's moves as it were.**

**I had not even thought about feeding regularly so now I was paying the price for it. When Larten returned from his hunt he had filled up our flasks and he had brought home a couple of rabbits which we skinned and ate after they had been spit roasted. **

**I was so hungry I ate a whole rabbit and I emptied my flask of blood in seconds. I never ate like that before but the inner animal took over and I stuffed my face before I could stop myself. I went to bed happy and full and in the evening when I got up I felt so much better. Much of the swelling had been reduced and the bruises were starting to fade already. **

**I looked a lot better and the colour had come back to my cheeks not that I had much colour in my cheeks anyway being a vampiress and all. **

**I knew that when I had recovered I would be able to perform at the Cirque Du Freak again and earn my place on the line up. I loved travelling around the Baltic States and around Eastern Europe but I also knew that I would be going to Asia and then finally to America because those were the only continents that we had not visited yet. I had been all over the world and I had seen many things in my life but I knew that I had to put that behind me because I was needed and without me the shows were not the same. **

**I was looking forward to visiting Asia because that meant that we would be going to India and Japan but before that I got to go ice dancing and I tried out my new outfit. It looked amazing and I absolutely loved it. I was adorned in red Lycra that was covered in crystals and my skates were also made to look similar to my outfit. I was happy to skate on the river but my secret hope was to find a skating rink, hire it out and use that to dance in because then I could play my music and nobody would disturb us which would give Larten and I some quality time together. **

**Everything was perfect and my life was brilliant but then something happened that threw my life into turmoil…**

**Chapter 20 Des Tiny's Revenge**

**I was looking forward to moving on to Asia with the Cirque Du Freak. I could not wait to visit India and spoil myself by buying some Saris and some material to make Truska into a Christmas tree. It was going to be hilarious when Truska looked in the mirror to see herself clad in green material, leaves and tinsel.**

**I was in our trailer picking out colours for Truska's outfit when there was a knock on the door. Larten was not around so I grabbed my sword and answered the door a little way to see who it was. It was Mr Tiny of all people. I let him in and he sat down on the armchair whilst I stood up to hear what he had to say.**

"**Sarah I cannot believe you. You killed my lovely vampaneze and in doing so you ruined my glorious apocalypse. I am here for revenge on you and the only way that I can get revenge is by giving you what the whole clan has always wanted but never had. I am giving you a baby that will be half human, half vampire. The clan will be so jealous that you will be shunned and thrown out and Larten will not want anything to do with a kid because he hates children." **

**Des Tiny roared as he pounced upon me, touched my stomach and whispered some inaudible words in a strange language. Then he vanished before I could do anything about it. **

**Larten came back a few hours later to find me collapsed on the bed in tears. I was petrified about the whole situation and I was even more scared of Larten's reaction.**

"**Larten I am in big trouble. Both of us are in a lot of trouble" I sobbed into my pillow.**

"**Why what has happened?" Larten asked me, he looked worried.**

"**Des Tiny has had his revenge on us for killing the vampaneze and ending his apocalypse." I explained.**

"**Why what has he done Sarah?" Larten asked.**

"**Larten he has violated me. He has made me pregnant with a half human half vampire" I said.**

"**But how has he done it? It is impossible for us to get pregnant or sire children. You know that" Larten said.**

"**He pounced on me, touched my stomach and whispered some inaudible words before he vanished" I explained.**

"**How dare Mr Tiny do that to you? I am fuming. He will pay for this Sarah I swear it" Larten roared.**

"**No Larten I have a better idea. He thinks that the child will make us shunned by the clan and he said that you hate children and that you would leave me but supposing having a child does the opposite to us and the clan? We can play him at his own game and have our revenge that way" I suggested.**

"**You mean that we should be happy and we should celebrate this event? In other words rub his nose in it?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes exactly because we are stronger than him and nothing will come between us" I replied smiling. **

"**Very well Sarah if that is what you wish to do. I have always secretly wished to have a child but I gave up when I found out about vampires being barren. If this works it would make me so happy and it could not be to a better mate than you." Larten said.**

"**You mean that you do not mind me being pregnant?" I asked nervously.**

"**Not at all but it will not be pleasant. Pregnancy is horrible having watched my mother go through it twice before she died" Larten said as he felt my stomach. I looked at it and I saw a strange mark on it that had not been there before; it looked like a finger mark where Des Tiny had touched me. **

"**I am so scared Larten. What if it goes wrong? What if I die in labour?" I asked.**

"**You will not die because I will make sure that you are kept healthy. I will be there every step of the way" Larten said.**

**Then just as I was about to say something I felt sick and ran to the toilet.**

"**So it begins" I said when I returned.**

"**Yes nine months of mystery and sickness before you get stretched to your limit literally" Larten replied.**

"**I hate Des Tiny but this may turn out to be a strange blessing in disguise" I said as I got into bed.**

"**I agree. Anyway who knows what will happen?" Larten replied as he got into bed beside me.**

**I slept the day away and I dreamed about the clan and what they would say when we sent word to tell them of Des Tiny's trick. I was really scared but I knew that if my plan worked Des Tiny would be stopped in his tracks once more. I hated Des Tiny with a passion; I hoped that I would get the chance to kill him at some point and that would end all of our problems. **

**I woke up that night with stomach cramps and I felt like a reanimated corpse. I was very sick and I looked worse than what a reanimated corpse looks like; I was very, very pale and I had no energy to do anything. Everything I ate I threw up and I was generally run down and ill. If I had to put up with this for the next nine months I was going to go crazy.**

"**How are you Sarah?" Mr Tall asked me when I went to ask for some time off.**

"**I am feeling very ill and I have thrown up twice already" I said.**

"**Are you sick Sarah?" Mr Tall asked me.**

"**Not exactly Mr Tall. Des Tiny has made me pregnant with a half human half vampire" I explained.**

"**Well I guess that I should say congratulations but you are not enjoying it. Take some time off and rest because you look dreadful" Mr Tall replied.**

"**Thank you. I do not like this one bit. I cannot eat or drink anything because I just throw it up" I explained.**

"**Try blood mixed with water and make it warm" Mr Tall suggested.**

"**Ok I will do. It might settle my stomach down" I responded.**

"**It may help but if that fails try ginger or peppermint because that also helps with morning sickness" Mr Tall said.**

"**Ok then I will try it out. Thank you for the advice" I said as I left to go back to bed.**

**Soon the whole camp knew of my condition and they were all fussing over me. Some of the performers did not believe me at first. I soon had a bump though, it grew rapidly and that was undeniable proof. I was kind of excited but I was nervous too. I hated being sick but Mr Tall's advice paid off and it was not as bad. I did not have any scans or anything because I did not deem it to be necessary. **

**I knew that I would go to the mountain to give birth because it was what I wanted to do. I felt safe there and it felt right to give birth in the medical wing surrounded by the vampiresses of the clan, the chief medic and Larten. It was going to be hell but it would be worth it in the end just to see the look on Des Tiny's face when he saw the clan's excitement and Larten's joy because I was able to give him a child. **

**Three months into the pregnancy I was feeling better but I was still throwing up and I could not do anything because if I moved it hurt and my stomach was big which made it hard to move. Larten did not leave my side; he was always fetching and carrying stuff for me, he went hunting frequently and he guarded me like I had never seen before. I liked the attention but I hated being so big because I did not want stretch marks in addition to all of the scars that I had. **

**The time came to go to the mountain. I would not be able to walk it let alone flit to the top so Larten organised a carriage. He made a carriage and he bought two large horses off of a gypsy who was selling them to buy food for his family. **

**I sat in the carriage with the baggage and Larten drove the carriage right to the main entrance of the mountain. He had experience with carriages because when he was young it was a main mode of transport so he got a job driving them before he joined Seba. It was better than factory work anyway and it paid well. **

**I felt like Dracula's bride because the carriage was big and black, it was closed over and it was pulled by two eighteen hand stallions that were incredibly strong and wild but Larten was just as strong and he drove the carriage with a great care because of the cargo but he was fast and we arrived at the mountain in a few weeks rather than the months that it had taken previously. **

**By the time Larten had carried me into the Main Hall I was six months pregnant, large and cranky because I could not do anything and I was reliant on the other clan members to help me out. I was short tempered and I was always in a bad mood because the vampire hormones in me were raging out of control. I really hated this part of the pregnancy and I could not wait for it to be over.**

**I could not get up the stairs to our quarters so Larten had to carry me everywhere. To him I was light but a human could not have lifted me or supported me. I felt bad for him but what could I do? Des Tiny had made me this way and now I had to get on with it as best as I could.**

**At least I had stopped throwing up and I was able to eat well. The bump was huge; it looked like I had a beach ball in my belly. I suspected that I had more than one baby on the way but I would have to wait and see.**

**I was in the Halls of Sport watching the entertainment when I was approached by Seba who had made a full recovery from his fractured skull. I was glad to see that he was so well.**

"**Hello Larten, Sarah how are you?" Seba asked me.**

"**I am well thank you Seba. I want this to be over though I am getting bored of being so big and of no use to anyone here" I said.**

"**I can see your point there Sarah. I hope that Larten is helping you out" Seba replied.**

"**Oh Larten has been an angel. Did you see the carriage that he made? He made it to transport me here in safety. Larten has carried me everywhere because I cannot walk properly. You have trained him well Seba" I said and smiled.**

"**I am glad that Larten has been so attentive. I knew that when I met you for the first time you were different to the other vampiresses that Larten has been with. I could sense something special about you" Seba replied. **

"**I am so proud of you Sarah. You have endured this latest test with great strength and humility. I hope that this child will bring us closer together. It will be hard but I am sure that we will manage" Larten said.**

"**Well if I can get through this then maybe I should take the Trials of Death and become a General" I laughed.**

"**Just get through this birth first then we will discuss the Trials of Death" Larten instructed me.**

"**Ok Larten if that is what you want. I will of course follow your instructions but as the birth draws closer I am getting scared because I know what it entails. I hope that I will be able to get through it" I said nervously.**

"**You will be fine. I will not leave you until it is over and it may surprise you but I have delivered a child before; in fact I have delivered six children into the world" Larten said in response.**

"**So you would know what to do if complications arise?" I asked nervously.**

"**Yes. I had to deliver my sister's child and my mother's twins before I delivered a couple of others on the streets of London when Seba and I were travelling when I first became his assistant" Larten explained.**

"**Well I feel ok now. I feel certain that it will be ok if you are there helping me through this nightmare. Giving birth is for me my worst nightmare; I fear it more than vampaneze" I admitted.**

"**Well I never thought that a woman would be scared of giving birth but we all have our phobias" Larten said.**

"**I am starving. I want some soup and bread" I said.**

"**Are you trying to change the subject Sarah?" Larten asked me.**

"**Not at all I am just bloody hungry. Sort it for me would you?" I snapped.**

"**Alright, alright as you wish. I will not be long" Larten said as he disappeared into the kitchens to make my lunch. **

"**I see that you have Larten at your beck and call. I am surprised that he is so submissive. I have never seen him so willing to follow orders" Seba laughed.**

"**Well I am unable to make my own food and Larten loves me. He will do what I tell him if he knows what is good for him and if he does not then he will pay for it later" I replied.**

"**Fair enough then I will see you soon Sarah" Seba said as he left me to go and fight in the wrestling ring which proved entertaining for everybody who watched the match.**

**Larten returned soon after the match was over with my lunch and it was great. I had thick vegetable broth and plenty of bread to fill up on. I felt ok after I had eaten. I had been feeling weak before but I was ok now that I had eaten. I was still not enjoying my pregnancy though; being pregnant sucks!**

**Eventually a few weeks later when I was lying in bed I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my stomach. I looked down and a whole load of fluid and blood gushed out. My waters had broken and it was time to give birth. **

"**Larten it is time, my waters have broken" I said. **

"**I can see that, just breathe like I told you to and stay calm. We will get through this" Larten said as he scooped me up and carried me to the medical wing which had been prepared. I was having contractions but they were not too frequent. I lay down in the medical bed and I tried to stay calm and breathe through the pain for it was intense. **

**I knew that I had to wait until I was dilated ten centimetres before I could begin to push. I was told to walk around but it was too much so I had to wait until the contractions were a few minutes apart until I could start to push my baby out. **

"**How are you feeling?" Larten asked me**

"**Weak and it hurts a lot. How do women do this Larten?" I asked.**

"**I have no idea. Des Tiny will pay for this trust me" Larten said as he helped me to sit up and get ready to push when the time came.**

**I had been in labour for a couple of hours at this point and by now all of the vampiresses had arrived to help out where they could. I was petrified and I was shaking with fear. The pain was the worst that I had ever felt and it was getting worse. My contractions were coming more frequently now and I got the urge to push but I did not want to push prematurely in case something went wrong. **

**After another four hours of contractions I was finally dilated enough to push and that was where the hard work would start. **

"**On the next contraction you can push. Push as hard as you can and breathe as it helps" The medic said as he examined me.**

"**OK I will do my best. Lucky I have vampiric strength to help me" I laughed.**

"**Yes but that will only help you so far. You have to do the work" The medic said as my contraction came.**

"**You can push now Sarah; push like your life depends upon it" The medic said.**

**So I pushed hard and it felt better but that was only the beginning I was in a lot of pain and it was intensifying.**

**My contractions were coming thick and fast and without mercy.**

"**Help me. I cannot do this without you" I said to Larten who was there helping me to breathe.**

"**You just have to push and there is nothing that I can do until the head appears" Larten said.**

"**Some help you are" I said as I pushed again.**

"**I am here; I am helping you to breathe and to keep calm. Those two things are vital" Larten replied. **

"**I can see the head Sarah. A couple more pushes should do it" The medic said.**

"**Alright. Let us do this thing and show Des Tiny what we vampires are made of" I said as I pushed again and screamed because it hurt so much.**

**Then it was all over. The baby came out with one final push and my ordeal was over. The cord was cut and the baby was handed to me. I had delivered a healthy baby girl that was half human and half vampire. I cradled her in my arms and she looked into my eyes, she had the same blue eyes that Larten had but she had black hair and she weighed in at seven pounds. **

"**Well done Sarah. You made it through labour and our daughter is really pretty. She has my eyes and she will be spoilt rotten" Larten said as he held the baby. **

"**I am scared that Des Tiny is going to do something bad. What if he wants the baby for some evil plan?" I asked.**

"**Des Tiny will die before he harms you or our daughter. What I want to know is why he would grant us a child when he has refused so many other couples" Larten said.**

"**Maybe he thought that it would destroy the clan through jealousy because we have what they wanted" I answered.**

"**Possibly but we will have to wait and see. The most pressing issue now is a name for our little one" Larten replied.**

"**Well how about naming her Arra in honour of Arra?" I suggested**

"**No that will be expected by everybody. Name her something else" Larten said.**

"**OK well how about Malora?" I suggested.**

"**Again that is a name from my past. I want my daughter to have a name that is new and not named after anyone" Larten replied.**

"**OK well how about Jiana?" I asked.**

"**That is a decent name. It will do quite nicely; so our daughter is now Jiana Crepsley unless you want her to have your old last name?" Larten asked. **

"**No Jiana Crepsley sounds perfect to me. We will have to present her to the clan now" I said.**

"**Of course we will present her to the clan as soon as you have healed up" Larten said. **

"**Very well, I need to rest now so can you take Jiana and look after her whilst I sleep? She will need to be fed at some point when she wakes up. Do we give her milk or blood?" I asked.**

"**I assume milk until she is a bit bigger or a mix of the two. Seba will know so I will ask him when I see him" **

"**Oh alright I will see you two later when I am feeling a bit better. The birth has sapped all of my energy Larten I am very weak" I said as I lay back in the bed and tried to sleep.**

"**I will fix you some food. That will get your strength back but now sleep is the best thing" Larten said as he left with our tiny bundle wrapped in one of his many cloaks. **

"**I love you Larten. I will see you later." I called out.**

"**We love you too" Larten said as he vanished.**

**Larten walked into the halls to get my food sorted out and the whole clan surrounded him to get a glimpse of Jiana. Larten held Jiana up on top of the Bars so that the whole clan could see the baby. Larten seemed to be really proud and of course everyone wanted to hold her but Larten was very selective about that. Seba, Gavnur and the Princes got the first hold and then the rest of the clan waited and hoped that Larten would pick them to hold his daughter. **

**I was still in the medical wing recovering. I was exhausted and I had been badly torn where the baby's head had come out so I had to be stitched up. I hoped against hope that I would not get an infection because if I did then it could lead to blood poisoning and that would kill me. **

**As luck would have it Larten appeared with a big pot full of soup and plenty of bread. I got it in me and I felt a bit better then but I could not move without help where I was so stiff and sore.**

"**Thank you for the soup. I have one major problem though and that is that I will not be able to perform at the Cirque Du Freak or mate with you for ages because I need to heal up. I am scared that you will get bored and find someone else to mate with until I am back to top condition" I said sadly.**

"**If you think that about me Sarah then you do not know me very well at all. I learnt from the last time and it was a mistake that will not be repeated" Larten assured me.**

"**We need a lot of baby supplies Larten. We need a cot, clothing and food. We need nappies too" I said.**

"**I will sort it Sarah. I know a little about raising children. Gavnur Purl would not be here now if I had not of found him and saved him. He was a baby named by Des Tiny and I remember how I killed a polar bear and wore its skin to survive" Larten said.**

"**Is there nothing that you cannot do? It seems that you have done so much in your life and now you have a baby to look after. Did you ever imagine when you were growing up that you would one day be a vampire with a blessed mate and a daughter?" I asked.**

"**Certainly not but Seba saved me. Now I cannot imagine my life any other way my dear. Our baby is probably the most precious gift that I have ever received even though it is strange of Des Tiny to grant it to us I am not complaining" Larten said.**

"**Jiana is pretty cute. She may become the first vampire princess you never know with these things" I said hopefully.**

"**I am sure that she will have no shortage of mates either when she is old enough to mate" Larten said.**

"**Well I have standards. Jiana will not mate with anybody unworthy but back to the matter at hand it is good that you have a carriage as it is foul weather outside. We need the baby supplies soon because Jiana cannot be wrapped up in your cloak the whole time" I said as I held my daughter.**

"**She is pretty quiet Sarah. She has not cried at all" Larten said.**

"**Oh charna's guts Larten, Jiana is not breathing!" I screamed as I looked down at my lifeless daughter.**

"**Get the medic over here immediately" Larten said as he began to perform chest compressions.**

**The medic came running over and he immediately began work to try and save our daughter.**

**After an hour the medic came back over and he was in tears.**

"**I could do nothing. Jiana has died of suspected cot death and there is nothing that I could have done to save her" The medic said.**

"**You mean that my daughter is dead after two nights of life?" I said.**

"**I am afraid so. Cot death is what we call it when a baby dies for no reason. It is rare but it happens" The medic said.**

**I said nothing I just cried and cried.**

"**Des Tiny will pay for this Sarah. I guarantee it" Larten said when he had stopped crying. We were both inconsolable. I just looked at my dead daughter and cried more than ever. **

"**I guess that we should tell the clan Larten for they are all expecting you to present Jiana to them" I said when I could speak again.**

"**Yes I will sort it but right now you need to rest, I will bring our mourning bands down so that people will know" Larten said as he left.**

**I lay back in my bed and tried to sleep but I was so upset and angry. I could not believe that my daughter was dead and after everything I had been through it was another disaster in a long line of disasters.**

**I blamed Des Tiny for the whole thing and I was totally disgusted with him. I swore my revenge on him as soon as I was well enough to move.**

"**Evening Larten how is your little bundle of joy?" Seba asked when Larten when they passed in the corridors.**

"**Oh Seba Jiana is dead. The medic said it was cot death and there was nothing that we could do" Larten said**

"**I am so sorry. I had no idea you have my condolences, you both do" Seba said.**

"**Please do not mention it to anyone Seba for I will tell the clan in due course" Larten said.**

"**Very well if that is your wish, I will go and get my mourning band" Seba said and he vanished.**

**Soon enough the whole clan had gathered together in the Princes Dome to hold a meeting and that is when Larten stood up and said;**

"**Before the meeting begins I have to tell you that my daughter Jiana has died of cot death. I request that you all wear your mourning bands and if anybody sees Des Tiny kill him on sight. Sarah and I are absolutely gutted and as you can imagine we will be withdrawing from the clan formally to mourn in private" Larten said.**

**To this news the clan all made the deaths touch symbol in unison and said;**

"**Jiana Crepsley even in death may you be triumphant" **

**Larten then left the Princes Dome and he came back to see me. I was moved into a private ward where Darryl had been when he was mourning Arra. **

"**The clan knows of our tragedy and I have said that we will be formally withdrawing from the clan to mourn in private as is the vampire way" Larten explained.**

"**OK. I guess that we will have to arrange a funeral at some point and although it is a horrible task it must be done" I said.**

"**I agree but we should mourn whilst our baby lies in state so that the clan can say goodbye" Larten said.**

**I put my mourning band on and as I was shaking so much I could not do it properly so Larten tied it around my arm and then we both sat in my room and grieved. I was so shocked and upset but I knew that Jiana was in Paradise with Arra so I knew that she was in safe hands. I knew that Arra would not let Jiana's spirit end up in the Lake of Souls or in one of Des Tiny's little people. **

**Larten sat with me and he would not leave my side. I knew that without him I would not have the strength to continue living as a clan member because Larten was my rock and the only person who I could turn to in a crisis. I cried a lot but that was to be expected and some nights I just sat up and silent tears ran down my cheeks like tiny raindrops. **

**A few nights later we arranged the funeral and although it was horrible it had to be done and we made sure that Jiana had the best funeral that we could arrange. I hated it but I knew that unless Jiana's body was burned she could not stay in Paradise or so our beliefs said. **

**I said special prayers and I sang a song of mourning which gave thanks and asked the vampire gods to accept her spirit and to watch over her until we joined her in Paradise. **

**Afterwards we all retired to one of the halls and we ate and drank a lot. I was still pretty weak but I ate what I could and I tried to speak to as many clan members as I could.**

**I returned to my room in the medical wing and I slept. I had a dream that Arra was holding Jiana and smiling like she was happy and then in my dream Arra was spinning Jiana around and then Jiana grew up a bit and she was learning to duel. Then I woke up and told Larten about it. **

"**I hope that Jiana is OK in Paradise. I wonder what it is like up there or wherever it is" Larten mused.**

"**I hope that she is resting in peace and that her spirit is floating around in endless freedom and that Arra's spirit is there guiding her" I said as I tried hard not to cry. Thinking about it was upsetting but I knew that we would be reunited someday.**

**Chapter 21 Des Tiny's visit**

**About six weeks after the tragic loss of my child I was walking around the halls looking for something to do when I noticed that none other than Des Tiny was in the halls too. I saw him heading towards the Princes Dome so I followed him there for I had to get revenge on him.**

**We entered the Princes Dome one after the other. I was surprised that Des Tiny had not noticed me following him (he never was very observant!) **

"**How can we help you Mr Tiny?" Prince Arrow asked.**

"**I have come to visit my child. I understand that I have a daughter somewhere" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Correction the child that you granted to Larten and I; our child I may add for Jiana was not yours is dead. Jiana died after two nights of life of cot death about six weeks ago so you are too late" I cried out in frustration.**

"**Oh well that was not expected. I am sorry for you both" Des Tiny replied.**

"**Well thanks for apologising and now you die!" I yelled and I struck out with my long sword aiming for Des Tiny's heart or chest area in revenge. I was not really thinking straight but I made contact with Des Tiny and my sword went right through his chest. I had taken Des Tiny by surprise and with my superior speed he had no chance against me. **

**Des Tiny fell to the ground and he was bleeding badly. I pulled my sword out of his chest and I sliced his head off with a single stroke.**

"**We have seen enough of this Sarah!" Prince Vancha bellowed over the top of the commotion which had now started taking place. **

"**Yes Sire" I said as I sheathed my long sword and wiped the blood off of my hands and face from where it had splattered everywhere. **

"**What possessed you to kill Mr Tiny?" Prince Arrow asked when the commotion had died down. **

"**It was pure revenge for Jiana's death and for putting this clan through hell for these past two hundred years" I explained.**

"**I can see that but why here? Why now? Why in front of us?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I saw my chance and I took it. I knew and you all knew that it had to be done and by doing it here in front of you it enabled you to see my superior fighting skills" I continued.**

"**That is true but you know the rules about having weapons in here. Why did the guards not take your long sword off of you?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Well there are no guards. We walked straight in here and Des Tiny did not see me. I will get this mess cleaned up" I said and I started to clean up the blood and I moved the body to the Hall of Death. It did not take long to clean up because I had made a good, clean kill and it was quick as I had been trained well; not many could stand against me in a fight. I had killed so many vampaneze and vampets on the battlefield that it was second nature to kill their creator for all the hell and trouble that he had caused throughout time. **

**The clan found it hard to believe when I told them that Des Tiny was dead and buried and they could not have been more pleased with the news. No Des Tiny meant no apocalypse and no more vampaneze, no more Lake of Souls and no more Little People.**

**Little People were made out of lost souls that Des Tiny captured and altered in some kind of primordial soup before they changed shape and lost their memories of who they were before they became a little person. The only exception to this was Harkat Mulds who was Kurda Smalt before he got changed and put back in time to help Darren in his Trials of Death. Darren failed but he redeemed himself and then he became a Prince as it was the only way that Darren could survive after failing the Trials because Princes could not be executed. **

**I knew that I would have to take my Trials of Death eventually because it was the only thing that I had not done since joining the clan all that time ago. I knew that Larten did not wish me to take the Trials but it was not that bad considering that I had survived abduction by the vampaneze, a fierce battle and child birth. I was looking forward to being formally recognised by the clan for passing the Trials and not just because I was Larten Crepsley's blessed mate. **

**Chapter 22 The Trials of Death**

**Several months went by and I was now ready to face the Trials of Death. I had recovered from the birth and I was out of mourning for the loss of my only child. I never quite got over the fact that my daughter died and I knew that I would never have another but I could not dwell on the past I had to look ahead to the future and more pressingly-my trials. **

**I had done a lot of intense training to prepare my body and mind for the challenge that lay ahead of me. I knew that the five trials would be picked at random from a bag of numbered stones. The trials of death ranged from fighting in the ring to climbing up a mountain and retrieving an object. **

**I was petrified but I did not let it show on my face as I entered the Princes Dome to pick my first Trial of Death and believe me when I say that the Trials of Death were aptly named. **

"**Sarah you have come before us to pick out your first Trial. I also understand that you have decided to take advantage of the period of preparation" Prince Vancha announced.**

"**That is correct; I believe that now is my time to take the Trials and prove myself to all of you by passing all five trials without hesitation" I replied as I stuck my hand in the bag and pulled out a small black stone with the number "28" carved into it. **

"**Trial 28 General's Square" Prince Vancha announced.**

**There was murmuring from the crowd that had gathered. I looked around me and then I said;**

"**OK that sounds fine to me so bring it on Sire" **

"**Your first trial will take place in three night's time when you have prepared. You will face Gavnur Purl on General's Square" Prince Vancha said and then I left to begin preparing for my first trial. **

**I had absolutely no idea what General's Square was. It sounded like a dance routine and facing Gavnur Purl was going to be hard because he was my blessed mate's best friend. I hoped and prayed that I would not have to kill him because I could not do that. **

**I was lucky when I saw what General's Square was. It was two square platforms placed opposite each other but off of the ground. The object was to stand on one platform and duel with a sword or a staff until one of you fell off there was no killing involved. It was similar to duelling on the Bars which was a relief because I knew that this Trial would not be too hard for me. **

**I vaulted onto the platform, I started spinning around and practicing my basic strikes and blocks because I had not been on the Bars for a while I was rusty and the square platform was even harder to move on because it was a lot smaller than the Bars and in addition it wobbled which made it harder to balance upon. **

**I basically had to duel Gavnur and knock him off within the time limit without falling off or getting knocked off as that was a failure and so too was stepping across to the other platform during the duel and running out of time because you only got thirty five minutes to knock your opponent off. **

**I started training with Larten so that I could get the hang of it. Larten did not go easy on me and he sent me to the ground with a couple of good strikes that I had not seen before but I leapt straight back up and started again. Eventually I was able to knock Larten off but because we were so far apart it made it harder to get hits in and it made it harder to dodge hits also. The trick was to jump up rather than to dodge a hit by blocking it. The platform wobbled lots but because I was quite light it supported my weight rather than collapsing when I stepped onto it and jumped up and down on it whilst I was dodging blows that could have killed a human. I picked it up quickly but the three days of preparation were soon over. I had to wear my duel outfit but I also had to be escorted to my Trial by a Prince in a robe that signified that I was about to take on a Trial of Death. The clan members were on two sides and they were all cheering for me and making the death's touch symbol at me as it was tradition. I also heard people shouting advice at me but it was confusing so I just took a moment to focus myself and my mind before I hopped up onto the platform where Gavnur was waiting for me on the opposite platform. **

**Larten had walked by my side when I was approaching the platform, he held onto my waist closely as we walked and I was quite nervous but with Larten there I felt OK. **

**When I was on the platform I was passed my weapon of choice and I was allowed to make a speech as it was traditional before my Trial started and this is what I said; **

"**Vampires of the clan I have come before you to face my first Trial of Death. I hope that I pass and before I begin my duel I want to say that I have taken advantage of the period of preparation and I hope that it has paid off. Larten I love you and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your training and advice for without you I would not stand a chance of passing the Trials of Death" I removed my rings before I started because when I had them on they got in the way of my staff. I also removed my necklaces and my bracelet in case they got broken. I passed them down to Larten who held on to them for me until the Trial was over.**

"**Duellists begin" Vanez Blaine the referee said and I began my Trial. Gavnur was not going to take it easy on me and he came at me with all of his skills. I dodged a couple of blows and I returned them. The platform was wobbling a lot so I had to gain my balance and keep it. I got in a couple of return blows but they were not that powerful and all the while the time was ticking. I was going to have to take a risk to win and pull off a very dangerous set of moves but I had no other option. **

**I took a deep breath in and I leapt up into the air as high as I could. I brought my legs up and I started a spin to build up speed so that I could hover in the air; I was trying to hover over Gavnur's head so that I could bring my staff down upon it and make a direct hit that would finish Gavnur off for good. **

**It was hard because I had to hover and stay up high enough so that I had time to land back on my own platform after making my lethal strike. **

**Gavnur had never seen my acrobatic skills so I had the advantage over him but it was dangerous. If I mistimed the move I would go off balance and fall as my momentum would not be enough to hold me in the air long enough to pull off my move and land back on my own platform. I gave it a jolly good go, I got the momentum up and managed to hover over Gavnur, I brought my staff down on Gavnur's head but he somehow blocked my first strike and that threw me off balance but I was able to land back on my platform ready to try something else but time was running out for me so I had to think and think fast. **

**I tried to side swipe Gavnur but he blocked my move and again I had to think of something else. I was starting to panic and I knew that if I panicked then I would lose my focus and fail so I had to take a bit of time to breathe and re-focus my mind and I had to think to myself "What would Arra do?". It was hard because Gavnur kept coming at me; what was worse was that had I been upon the Bars I would have won by now which was frustrating for me. This was a Trial of Death however and it was not meant to be easy. **

**I did my very best and I tried to remember what Larten had taught me but my mind went blank and I just could not think. I did something risky but if it worked then it would be worth it but if it failed then I would fail also. **

**I closed my eyes and I began to clear my mind and meditate. I was trying to link to Larten so that I could ask him what to do. I was trying desperately to remember the vicious moves that Larten had performed that sent me crashing to the ground when we were training. **

"**Larten hear me, Larten help me please" I thought to myself and I hoped that he would pick up on my vibes. **

"**Sarah I cannot help you it is against the rules of the Trials" I heard Larten say back to me.**

"**Larten I beg you. Do you want me to fail and get executed?" I thought to Larten.**

"**Of course not; I love you. Alright, alright jump up in the air and get your momentum up but instead of going for Gavnur's head aim for his heart and make a lightning quick jab thereby knocking him off balance. Then you can finish him off" Larten said to me over our mental link.**

"**OK Larten. Thank you so, so much" I said in reply then I pulled off Larten's suggestion and with two quick moves Gavnur was sent to the floor and I stood victorious with two minutes to spare on the clock.**

"**That was a close call. You nearly ran out of time Sarah. What made it better was that you had your eyes shut" Vanez said after the Trial was over. **

"**I had to shut my eyes and focus. It was the only way that I could think clearly because my mind went totally blank" I explained.**

"**Well at least you passed your first Trial" Vanez said.**

"**Yes Vanez I did pass my first Trial of Death, one down and four to go eh?" I laughed as I downed a mug of strong, dark ale. **

"**Gavnur is OK. He is getting patched up but he will be fine because he landed well but that could have been a lot worse for him if you had really gone in for the kill as it were. Gavnur will be bruised from your strikes and jabs however" **

"**Well the point is that I passed and now I get to rest for a night before I draw my next Trial and then I get three nights to prepare which is even better" I said.**

"**Just make sure that you make the most of what time you have Sarah" Vanez said as we downed yet another pint of strong, dark ale each. **

**I rushed off to find Larten after I had quenched my thirst. I found him in our quarters, he was getting ready to go out hunting but I had other ideas on my mind.**

"**Hi Larten I have been looking for you. Thank you for helping me to pass my first Trial" I said.**

"**That is OK but please do not rely upon me to do that again. If we get caught it means death for us both but I could not stand there and watch you die or watch you fail even if you were fighting my best friend up there" Larten replied in his usual monotone voice. **

"**Very well Larten I will not ask you to help me out again if I pass I pass if I fail I fail. Can I have my jewels back now?" I asked.**

"**But of course" Larten said as he handed back my rings, necklaces and my bracelet.**

"**I feel naked without my rings and crest on Larten" I said as I put my jewels back on again. **

"**Well you have not removed your bracelet or rings since I gave them to you and you have had that necklace for as long as I have known you and that other one that you keep as a trophy of your victory over the vampaneze is pretty cool too" Larten said.**

"**You mean George and Steve's old crests?" I asked.**

"**Yes they show that you are not only devious and cunning but very skilled and you would have made a good spy if you had not wanted to become a vet before you met me" Larten replied.**

"**I can see that but we never have to worry about vampaneze or Des Tiny ever again do we?" I laughed as Larten left me for his hunting trip. **

"**No we do not have to worry about either of those things. I will see you later unless you have other plans?" Larten asked.**

"**I have no plans at all so I will see you later but right now I need a wash and a rest after my first Trial; it took a lot of energy as you saw" I responded.**

"**Bye then my beloved. I will bring you something back from the hunt, then later I will sort out a training schedule for you and if you are up for it we can spend some time together just you and me" Larten said before he kissed me and vanished into the night. **

**I returned to my room, picked up my wash bag and headed to the waterfalls where I had to wash away the sweat and the dried blood off of my body. The icy water would also help my muscles by freezing them and as a result of being so cold it would help to reduce the swelling that I had gotten from taking Gavnur's strikes rather than dodging them and losing my balance.**

**I jumped straight under the waterfall and as I had suspected it was bloody cold; I felt like I was outside in the depths of winter with no coat on. When my body adjusted to the cold I was fine and I was able to wash. When I had finished I dried myself off and returned to my quarters. **

**I had to rest before Larten returned from his hunt. I was hungry but I had to wait and see what Larten was bringing back for me to cook up for my lunch. **

**When Larten returned he had brought us a pair of partridges and a couple of hares that would make a great pie so I made some pastry and I cut the breasts off of the partridges before I jointed the hares and added them to the pie mix.**

**It would take a while to cook so that left Larten plenty of time to sort out my training schedule ready for my next four Trials of Death. **

**Larten told me what to put on it and I wrote it out and stuck it to my wall so that I could refer to it whenever I needed to. The schedule was set out like a timetable with hours on one side and the activity on the other side. I had things like training time for next trial, hunting time, feeding time, private time, free time ETC written on it. It was easy to follow and it made sense. **

**After we had eaten our game pie we had some time to ourselves which was great. I wanted to spend some real time with Larten because we had not spent any time together for ages and we had a lot of catching up to do. **

"**Do you feel like mating?" Larten asked me. I was still aching but I needed something to sort my body out and we had not done it for so long that I felt like we were growing apart.**

"**Yes Larten if you want to mate then that is OK by me as we have not been together for ages and I have forgotten what it feels like" I said in reply. **

"**How could that be possible Sarah? I always try and make our time together unforgettable. Am I not satisfying you anymore?" Larten asked me.**

"**No it is just the fact that I have missed you so much and we have grown apart slightly in my opinion because we have not been alone together for so long like this. I am afraid that I will not be up to my usual standard because I am out of practice my love" I replied looking slightly intimidated.**

"**I could take it gentle if you want me to but you may not get as much sensation as what you are used to" Larten explained.**

"**I think that I will be OK but I am scared that it may hurt as it has been so long and I may a bit sore still from where I have given birth and been stitched up" I said with a worried look on my face.**

"**I admit that it has been so long since I have been with a woman who has given birth that I cannot remember if it hurt her or not but if it does then it probably will not last long and besides the rest of the sensation that you receive from me will be pure pleasure my dear if I do my job properly" Larten said as he looked at me in a way that made me get all funny and tingly inside.**

**My spine was buzzing with this pin and needles sensation and I knew then that Larten was undressing me with his eyes. He did not have to say anything for I knew all too well what was about to take place. **

**I removed my clothing and then I did something that I had not done before. I threw my weight forward and jumped with such speed that Larten was knocked to the ground taking me with him. I landed on top of Larten ready to do to him what he normally did to me which was to rip off what clothing was in the way, throw it down and then we would start to play with each other and tease each other until one of us got up and moved to our bed where the actual magic would happen as it were. **

**This night in particular was better than most nights that I had experienced and at the end of it I felt great and I felt like we had reaffirmed our bond because our ties to each other had been getting weak but now they were stronger than ever.**

"**When we were together last night it was one of the most exhilarating nights of my life. I have missed that side of things for so long. I hope that I was good enough" I said as I put some clean clothes on.**

"**You were fine. I have no complaints but you must try and not be so vocal because it is not fair on our neighbours but if I am that good then it makes me feel proud that I can make you be that vocal" Larten replied as he adjusted his cloak; it did not look right because I had ripped it off of him and it had a hole in it. **

**I was quite nervous about picking my second Trial of Death. I knew that it would probably be a nasty one knowing my luck and when I put my hand into the bag to pull out the numbered stone I uttered a silent plea to the Vampire Gods to be merciful.**

"**Number sixty which is Wrestle to the Death" Prince Vancha said and went even paler than what I already had been before I picked out the Trial.**

"**The Vampire Gods have given you a nasty Trial. Is there nothing that we can do?" Larten pleaded with Vancha when he heard the news.**

"**There is nothing to be done. Chosen Trials cannot be changed" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**It is fine Larten. I will train harder and if I am destined for Paradise then so be it" I replied. Then I asked "What does this Trial involve?" **

"**You must wrestle a General in the ring until one of you dies. It is as simple as that" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right I see now why you did not want me to take this Trial. Who am I facing Larten? I asked.**

"**I do not know my love a name will be picked out at random. It is difficult because we cannot train you to face somebody if we do not know who it is. You will not know any of their weaknesses and you are likely to die" Larten said.**

"**Oh I understand. Could your name be picked out Larten?" I asked nervously.**

"**In theory yes but the Princes would not be so cruel as to do that to us" Larten replied.**

"**So the Princes choose my opponent then? Maybe you could have a word with Darren and influence him in some way" I suggested.**

"**Do not be so silly. That is against the rules Sarah." Larten chastised me.**

"**I know that Larten I was only joking. I know that you cannot help me in that sense but you can help me to practice my wrestling skills and my hand to hand combat. I need to learn a few good blocking moves so that I do not get beaten to a pulp" I said. **

"**Wrestling is not about blocking it is about getting on top of your opponent and staying on top of them. You win by pinning them down so that they cannot move normally but this is a fight to the death. You must get on top of your opponent and either stab them with your one permitted weapon or strangle them if you choose not to slit their throat first" Larten explained.**

"**Let me guess that I will be covered in bruises and blood again if I do not die and if I get too injured then how the hell will I pass my other three Trials?" I asked with a scared expression on my face.**

"**Do not worry about it. I will do my utmost to prepare you but in order to do so I am going to have to get rough so that you learn how to take down an opponent who is twice your size and double your body weight if not more" Larten said. **

"**Oh right I understand. Do as you will to me because I trust you one hundred per cent" I replied with a worried and nervous smile. **

"**Very well Sarah. We will start training later on tonight but now on your schedule it says that it is time for feeding if you are thirsty?" Larten enquired. **

"**You know me Larten. I have always had a high blood lust and I am dying to feed. I think that my time with the vampaneze made it worse because I got used to draining the humans that I fed from rather than just taking a small quantity to satisfy my hunger" I replied as I put my travelling cloak on.**

"**Let us go then my love if you need to feed. I am OK but you need all the strength that you can get especially now that you are facing a horrible Trial" Larten said as we left our quarters and exited the mountain for the nearest village where we would have our fill of blood before returning to the mountain to begin training for my next Trial.**

**We reached the village and we broke into a house that had two people sleeping in it. They were obviously quite poor because the house was devoid of furniture and they were on the floor asleep when we fed from them. I took a fair amount and Larten had to remind me not to drink too much but I needed it as I had not fed for a while due to my hectic training schedule. **

"**I knew that I needed to feed. It has been a while since I last made a direct feed. I am glad that you pulled me off before I drank too much blood because you know what I get like" I said when we had finished.**

"**That I do know and that is why you must feed regularly so that you do not get into a state like this again. You are lucky that I know when to stop feeding" Larten replied. **

"**That is true. Have you got a handkerchief or a cloth that I can wipe my mouth with?" I asked.**

"**Here, you did make quite a mess when I pulled you off. It is not like you but again you have not fed directly for ages" Larten said as he handed me his handkerchief. I wiped my mouth and hands because I was covered in blood and it was quite a mess. I had to change my clothing too from where the blood had spurted everywhere. **

"**Thank you. We should return to the mountain now. I need to begin training" I said assertively.**

"**Yes that is true. Let us go and begin your training" Larten replied as I handed back his now blood stained handkerchief.**

**We arrived back at the mountain and after I had changed my clothes we started to train. I was useless to start with and many times Larten pinned me down and totally immobilised me. It was useless as he always drew his dagger.**

"**You are dead. If you cannot stop me from pinning you down then how are you going to stop your opponent?" Larten said to me as he let me up.**

"**I like it when you pin me down though Larten. I get hot when I am underneath you" I said.**

"**Be that as it may we must put our other feelings and urges aside for the sake of your life. Now do it again and this time try and roll me over" Larten said as we started wrestling in the ring again. I was exhausted and sweating but eventually I learned when to move to get the advantage. I ended up on top of Larten with his own dagger up to his throat.**

"**Well done my love. You have actually pinned me down. If I move you would surely kill me. I am glad that I am only training you my blessed mate. I could not bear to do this for real" Larten said as I sheathed his dagger and helped him up. **

"**You have to admit that I learn pretty fast my love. I train for hours and I pray that it will be enough to survive. When you train me I have the advantage because I know that you would never hurt me and because we mate I have got used to how your body moves and how it works. I use that knowledge to my advantage" I said after our training session was over.**

"**You learn fast but your moves are sloppy. You must learn to control your strikes; it is not all about speed it is about accuracy. You took me down but it was not powerful enough and if it was a real fight I could have finished you off way before that point but of course I could never do that to you my dear" Larten replied.**

"**I know but maybe you should have a real fight with someone so that I can watch and learn how it is done" I suggested.**

"**Yes that is a good idea. I think that it could be arranged" Larten replied. **

"**That is good. If I watch a proper match then I can see what you mean because this is a major challenge for me" I said in response.**

"**I will challenge Vanez to a match and I will explain to him what is going on so that he can show you a few things. Before Vanez lost his eye in a tussle with a lion he was the wrestling ring champion. He is an ideal person to show you a few things under my supervision of course" Larten said sternly in his teaching voice which was not a bit like his normal voice. **

"**Very well if you think that it will help me then submit your challenge" I said interested because I had never seen Larten in the wrestling ring. **

"**Your Trial is tomorrow evening so it will have to be tonight as tonight is your last night to train. You will have very little time tomorrow" Larten said as we left our deserted training hall and headed to the Halls of Sport. **

**I was kind of nervous about facing my second Trial but I had no choice but now I had to clear my mind and focus on the visual training aid that Larten had prepared for me.**

"**Vanez can I ask you a favour?" Larten asked him when he had finished refereeing a drawn out duel that I would have finished in half the time. **

"**Of course my friend what is it?" Vanez replied.**

"**I need you and I to wrestle in the wrestling ring and give Sarah a few pointers before her Trial tomorrow. I think a visual demonstration will help her" Larten said.**

"**Of course I can do that but I won't take it easy on you Larten. You know me" Vanez laughed as he stepped into the ring without his referee robes on. He only wore his trousers as he said that his clothing would restrict his movement. **

"**I do not expect you to take it easy Vanez. I can take whatever you throw at me and then pay it back double. However I do want you to stop at certain points so that you can explain to Sarah what you are doing as it meant to be part of her training" Larten instructed as he shed his own clothing and also stepped into the ring. **

"**Sarah watch closely as you may pick up a few things before I start explaining it to you" Vanez instructed.**

"**You have my undivided attention" I replied as I sat down in a chair next to the ring and prepared to learn from the demonstration.**

**Then the wrestling match started and I soon saw how tough my Trial was going to be. Larten went all out and Vanez did that also. It was entertaining to watch but every so often they would stop and explain to me the move sequence that had just been performed before I had a go at doing it. **

"**Not bad Sarah, you are getting it now" Vanez said to me as I tried out an advanced move on him. **

"**Sarah you are doing well but remember your earlier training as you will need all of it to pass this Trial" Larten reminded me when I forgot to block a strike and took a hit.**

**After five hours of intense training I was exhausted and yet again I was covered in bruises but they would heal up. I felt more confident about my Trial now though but I still had no idea who I would be facing.**

**I had a wash and I went to bed as I was shattered. I could barely stand up I was so tired but I knew that I had done everything that I could to pass my Trial and it was now in the hands of the Vampire Gods as to whether I passed or failed. **

**I collapsed on my bed and I must have fallen asleep really quickly. I could not even remember Larten coming in I was that tired. I woke up sometime near to sunset with Larten's cloak covering me and I remembered that tonight was my big Trial night. **

**I hurriedly got dressed and scoffed down my breakfast as I wanted to get in some last minute training before it was time to find out who I would have to kill in order to survive and pass my second Trial.**

**I was absolutely bricking it, I nearly threw up my breakfast but I kept it down as it could have been my last ever meal. I went to the ring and I started practicing my sword craft as that was my weapon of choice. I practiced all manner of blocks and strikes until I could hear Generals arriving to watch my Trial. **

**I exited the ring and I waited for everybody to arrive but I kept my sword unsheathed as it had to be inspected before the Trial started as were the rules. **

"**Sarah you are about to begin your Trial but first we must inspect your sword and then we will tell you who you are wrestling against" Prince Arrow said as he was initiating the Trial tonight.**

**I handed over my sword. It was made of silver with a double edged blade and it was engraved with my name, my crest and my initials as it had been a gift from my beloved Larten for the Trial. On the other side it was engraved with the words;**

"**I hope that this sword serves its purpose. May the luck of the vampires be with you tonight and forever more my love" Then it had Larten's own crest and initials on it.**

"**This sword is fine. I like the engraving upon it and I hope that it also serves its purpose" Prince Vancha said.**

"**Thank you Sire I will join you in a barrel of ale afterwards" I said.**

"**Very well but you have to survive first" Prince Vancha remarked.**

"**Oh I will survive. I am determined to do this for the clan and for myself" I replied.**

"**I admire your spirit Sarah but now you must enter the ring" Prince Vancha said and I entered the ring.**

"**Sarah tonight for your Trial you will be facing Darryl Stevenson" Prince Arrow announced and I looked around to see him walking towards me.**

**I had to kill Arra's widowed mate who I had helped and who I had gotten to know very well over the years. **

"**Hello Darryl. I am so sorry for this if it had been anybody else but you I would have been happier as it is we must fight to the death" I said glumly.**

"**Yes but it is not all bad. I will be reunited with Arra if you win and if I win you will be reunited with your daughter; either way one of us will enter Paradise by the end of this night" Darryl replied.**

"**If you do win please strike true and I will promise you the same because suffering will not do anybody any good" I said.**

"**I agree whichever one of us wins will make a quick, clean kill. A kill with honour as it were" Darryl replied.**

"**Agreed" I said and we shook on it.**

"**Wrestlers take your positions" Prince Arrow said and we stood at either end of the ring. **

"**I love you Larten. If I die tonight please do what we discussed yesterday and thank you for my sword" I said.**

"**You are welcome my love. Just remember to focus and do not panic for you have been well trained and I hate to say it but you have the upper hand in this fight" Larten said as he held me tightly and kissed me in public which is something he never did but on this occasion it was acceptable. I knew that it could be the last time that we would be together so I made the most of it. **

**Eventually Larten stopped kissing me and he exited the ring and then it was down to me.**

"**Begin" Prince Arrow said and then the wrestling match started. Darryl pounced on me but I ducked down and threw him off with ease. He came at me again and I blocked his attack before we started going for it on the floor. **

**We rolled over and over punching and scratching, kicking and biting each other until we were pulled apart by the referee. I held onto my sword for dear life and then our sword play begun except Darryl had a dagger that was a lot smaller and shorter than my sword.**

**I was quite good at fencing and it came in handy but the match was not over yet. I got a few good strikes in and Darryl was bleeding from a few gashes that I had given him. I was bleeding too from scratches on my face and a wound on my back but my front was fine thanks to my armour that I had chosen to wear.**

**The match dragged on and several times we went down on the ground and beat each other to a pulp but eventually Darryl dropped his dagger, I picked it up and threw it out of the ring as he was not allowed to retrieve a weapon that was not in the ring. **

**We really went for it at the end of the match and when my chance came I took it. Darryl tried to pounce on me again; he landed on my back so I slammed him down to the ground and rolled over. I managed to pin him down and then I sliced his throat open and before he could react he bled to death making me victorious.**

"**Even in death may you be triumphant Darryl" I said as I exited the ring.**

**I stood up covered in Darryl's and my own blood but I had passed and the crowd loved it. I was so tired and all I can remember is that Larten held me up and spun me around before I headed to the medical wing to be patched up for the sixth time. I had to have stitches and bandages applied but I was OK and that meant that I could heal up then take the next Trial.**

"**Sarah you were phenomenal. I have never seen anybody fight like that. That last move you did was really cool; the way you slammed Darryl down and then sliced his throat open was just amazing. I have never seen a vampiress move with such speed and skill" Prince Darren said when he came to see me in the medical wing.**

"**Thank you Sire I did do pretty well but I wish that I could have made a less messy kill" I said.**

"**Vanez was not happy. It will take ages to clean up afterwards but you are alive and now you get a break before you have to pick out your next Trial" Prince Darren replied.**

"**Can you go and find Larten for me Sire? I have to see him but I cannot leave here until I have had my bandages applied" I asked.**

"**Two things Sarah; one don't call me Sire it isn't necessary and two; of course I will find Larten for you" Prince Daren said then he left to get Larten for me.**

**I lay back in my medical bed and I tried to rest because my wounds were hurting. Some of the stab wounds were deep but they had not hit any vital areas which was a major relief. **

**I had a wash after I had been patched up to get rid of the dried blood and dirt out of my hair and off of my body because wrestling to the death is a very messy and dirty business let me tell you. **

**My clothing had been sliced into pieces so after the match I only had my armour on and it was rather uncomfortable but it effectively saved me because Darryl's dagger could not pierce it. **

"**Sarah my love, how are you feeling?" Larten asked me when he entered the medical wing.**

"**I feel like my body has been used as a sheath for every weapon in the mountain but luckily the dagger blade did not hit any of my vital organs" I explained. **

"**That is lucky Sarah. I see that your sword went the distance and I am glad that I had it made for you now. I have cleaned it and polished it, the sword is ready for use in our quarters packed away in the weapon closet" Larten said as he sat next to me whilst the medic was applying yards of bandages to my whole body and when he had finished I looked like an Egyptian mummy. **

**The bandages were kind of itchy but they kept me warm and they kept infection away from my wounds as that was always the concern in the mountain due to a lack of antiseptic and modern facilities.**

**I left the medical wing and I went to find Prince Vancha as I had promised to join him in a barrel of ale which I did. I had a lot of vampires congratulate me on my victory but I also had to show respect for Darryl's death. **

**I missed him because he would always come over to me and sit with me at meal times. He used to play cards with me also and he was good at chess but his hunting skills were the best that I had ever seen. **

**I was angry because the Princes knew how much Darryl meant to me as a friend because he was the only link that I had to Arra except for Larten. **

**I looked at how he would look at it though and at least now he would be with his beloved Arra again and after I had finished going around the halls I went to bed.**

**I dreamed of Darryl and Arra in Paradise walking around the vast, open lands and how they were taking care of my daughter who was also in my dream. I often saw Jiana in my dreams. I missed her awfully and although I had only known her for two days the bond was there, I missed Arra too but that was because I respected her and I knew that she would want me to pass my Trials. **

**I often confided in Larten about how I was feeling because he understood and he helped me get through the tough times with his advice and his unfaltering, unconditional love. **

**I was often in awe of this but that was just Larten's way. I felt so privileged that I had been lucky up until this point with my Trials. **

**Killing Darryl was the hardest thing that I had ever had to do apart from cremating my own daughter. I hated that Trial with a passion but it was over now and I had to focus on my next three Trials. **

**I was nervous about picking my next Trial because judging by what Trials I had already picked it was going to be a nasty one. My time came and I marched into the Prince's Dome ready to pick my next Trial.**

**I stuck my hand deep into the bag of numbered stones and I prayed that my next Trial would be one that did not involve killing.**

"**Number 136 the Murky Pool" Prince Vancha said.**

"**That sounds OK. What do I do dive to the bottom and retrieve something?" I asked.**

"**No you will be chained up and the key to your chains is enclosed in a block of ice underwater. Your partner has to get the key and release you before you both drown and before time runs out because it is pitch black and very deep down there. Did I mention that it's ice cold also?" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Oh my word Sire what a nightmare" I replied shaking.**

"**It is a nasty Trial I grant you but at least you can pick who your partner is" Prince Darren cut in.**

"**Very well if it is the will of the Gods then I will of course train and prepare myself for this newest challenge" I said as I looked at Larten with a look that said "Help me". **

"**You have three nights to train so I advise that you begin immediately. You need to adjust to the cold as well as holding your breath for an extended period of time" Prince Vancha replied as we left the Prince's Dome and headed for the training pool. **

**I was absolutely petrified but I held it together and I started to train. The training pool was very deep and when I sunk to the bottom in chains it was very scary. The training pool was clear and not murky but it was just as cold as the real pool where my Trial would take place. I was really scared because I could not hold my breath long enough so I had to work on it. I was on a rope in the training pool so when I could not hold it any longer the rope was wound up and I would be pulled up so that I could breathe. It was so tricky. The worst bit was having to hold my breath before I was submerged and then I had to hold it for as long as I could while Larten dug through the ice and got the key to release me. **

**Of course I had picked Larten as my partner because he had done this Trial as one of his own and he had partnered a couple of other vampires when they too took this Trial. **

**Even if this had of been the case I still would have picked Larten because I trusted him and I knew that he would not let anything happen to me regardless of any other factor. **

**Larten was also a quick, strong swimmer and that meant that he could dive in and get the key faster than most vampires could which was a great help to me because it meant that in theory I could be released and out of the water before I started having problems breathing or rather holding my breath. **

**The rules stated that until my chains were off Larten could not interact with me in any way except to unlock my chains. The rules did not say anything about not looking at me though so Larten kept on looking at me and that gave me courage and the confidence to keep on pushing through and I was able to hold my breath for longer each time I practiced. **

**I was bloody cold though and if I had had extra warm vampire blood in my veins I would have caught hypothermia and died if I had not of drowned first. **

**By the end of my first training session I was freezing cold, wet through and out of breath so much so that I could barely walk I was that tired from where I had used all of my energy to keep warm and keep on holding my breath. The next training session would be in the murky pool so that I could get a feel for what it would be like in the dark. **

**The murky pool was worse than what I had first imagined because it was not only dark and cold but it was full of weeds and mud at the bottom so that when I dropped to the bottom I was surrounded by mud and that made my eyes sting so much that I had to keep them tightly closed.**

**I had to focus on not panicking because my body was urging me to breathe and I knew that I could not so I had to overcome that sensation before my training went any further. **

**Also the block of ice that contained my key was huge and thick so it took Larten a while to break through it as he only had his hands no weapons were permitted. He had to punch the ice and use his nails to get through it as quickly as he could but he could not see anything so it was a challenge for us both. **

**I was permitted to wear a simple outfit to preserve my dignity but I could not wear anything thick or waterproof as it was forbidden. Larten had his swimming trunks on. He had invested in a pair when we were in the hotel so that he did not look out of place by the pool. I wanted to wear my dancing leotard but it was shrinkable if it got wet so I had to wear a dress and a pair of shorts underneath it. **

**After seven hours of gruelling training I was exhausted and freezing when I was released for the last time from the chains. I rose to the surface and pulled myself out of the pool then I collapsed in a heap on the floor with the cold and the exhaustion. I was barely conscious and very out of breath but I was alive and that was the main thing. **

**Larten threw his cloak around me to warm me up and after a bowl of fresh soup I was ready to face my Trial but I still had one night left so I spent it resting in preparation for this next challenge. I had to get all of my energy back and then I had to still be fit enough to take my last two Trials after this one. **

**When it came time to face this Trial I prepared myself and I was searched to make sure that I did not have a weapon or a spare key on me which I could use to cheat with.**

**Larten was also searched and when we were cleared I stood up and the chains were wrapped around me tightly. The chains in training had left me bruised and I still had not recovered fully from the injuries that I had sustained in my second Trial so I was not in the best condition. **

**I was lowered into the murky pool and then my Trial started. There was nothing but blackness. I heard the splash when Larten entered the pool so now I just had to sit tight and wait. I had my eyes closed and I tried to imagine myself as a human lying on the beach in Spain where I had gone every year before I had been blooded. It helped me to relax and that meant that I was able to hold my breath and focus. **

**Time was going by and I knew that the whole Trial had to be completed in one hour or it would be an automatic fail regardless of whether I was released or not. **

**Time was slipping by. I was getting the urge to breathe but I knew that if I did it would be my doom. I fought my body's instinct to open my mouth and breathe. It was so hard to ignore this urge to breathe. Larten seemed to take forever. I was wondering if he was able to break through the ice. I was scared for him because he had to hold his breath also except he was allowed to surface for air as it was not his Trial. That was good in a way but if he did then it would waste precious time. **

**I could hear a faint thudding noise. I think that it was Larten punching through the ice to get to the key. He would not give up on me and I was not going to give in to my body's instincts either! **

**Suddenly I heard an almighty cracking noise and then I heard a lot of water rushing by. I guessed that Larten had broken through the block of ice and it had collapsed causing a huge wave which was what had made all of the water come this way. I was knocked back by the huge surge of water and the chains made it hard for me to sit up again but I knew that I would soon be free of them. **

**It was too dark to see even if my eyes had of been open so I had to wait to feel Larten near me as I could not see him. I could hear faint noises but the water in my ears had made me almost deaf to what was happening around me. **

**Then I felt a warm sensation pressed against me and my chains were suddenly a lot looser so I wriggled out of them but I could not hold my breath any longer so Larten kissed me and transferred air to me from him while we surfaced. **

**I grabbed hold of the side of the pool and I pulled myself out and I lay there panting and shivering. **

**I looked at the clock and I had passed the Trial with twenty seconds to spare. I looked at Larten whose hands were bleeding badly from where he had punched through the ice and the mud which was on the bottom of the pool had got into the wounds so he had to wash them out thoroughly before he healed them up. **

**I lay still for a while panting and exhausted. I could not even talk as my teeth were chattering so much. I was very close to failure so I decided that the next Trial would be done better and with time to spare if there was a time limit.**

"**Well done Sarah you have passed your third Trial but it went to the final few seconds you very nearly ran out of time. Larten was amazing at breaking through the ice I doubt that I could have done better" Prince Vancha said to me when I had dried off and got my breath back. **

"**Thank you Sire I will tell Larten that when I see him. I am so tired right now and I am so cold I need a hot meal and a chair by the fire to warm up again" I replied.**

"**Are you OK darling?" A familiar voice asked me.**

"**I am freezing but I am OK. You undoubtedly saved me down there as I could not hold my breath any longer. We only had twenty seconds to go anyway so we were very lucky my love" I said as Larten once again draped his cloak around me so that I could warm up quicker. **

"**Yes we were very lucky. That ice was incredibly hard. It is not normally that thick but we have had a particularly harsh winter so the ice is thicker than normal" Larten replied.**

"**Prince Vancha said that you were amazing at breaking through that ice and he doubts if he could have done a better job" I told Larten.**

"**Well when the life of my blessed mate is on the line I have to perform at my best and even if it was not your third Trial I would still perform to the best of my ability and that goes for anybody else who takes that Trial if they pick me as their partner" Larten responded.**

"**That is one reason why I love you so much. You help anybody and if someone's life is in your hands you do your best no matter who they are. I respect you for that and I hope that my fourth Trial will be as far away from water as possible" I laughed.**

"**Just focus on recovering from this Trial first dear one and when the time comes to begin your next Trial I will be right there waiting and cheering for you" Larten replied. **

"**I know you will be and if I did not have your support I doubt that I could have made it this far" I said as I left the fire side in the main hall and returned to our quarters. **

**I checked my schedule and it said that I had a gap of twelve hours before I had to pick out my fourth Trial and begin training for it. I had free time scheduled and I had quality time with Larten scheduled but I focused on my recovery. Larten was very understanding and he did not mind that we only played cards and had a drink instead of mating because Larten knew that my body could not handle it. I was very sore from the bruises and the last thing I needed was to sustain any more injuries before my fourth Trial. **

**We talked a lot and we discussed everything that normal couples discussed except we had many more things to talk about and as Larten was so much older than me he could tell me stories and tales of his drunken youth which were hilarious but quite personal. **

**After that I went hawking which was one of my favourite hobbies. I loved my Harris hawks to pieces and they were beautiful. My hawks were superb hunters and they often brought back a rabbit for me even if I had not told them to. **

**My hawks had been a gift from Arra, in her will she had left her hawks to me as she knew that I would fly them and take great care of them. They were called Diamond and Angel. I loved them both and of course Arra had been given them as a gift from Darryl for her birthday. **

**Arra had been the one who had got me into hawking in the first place because she could not fly them simultaneously so she got me to hold one while she flew the other; then they both flew and they landed on our gloved fists. I loved it and it was a popular vampire pursuit along with hunting and sparring. **

**I enjoyed beating also but hacking was my favourite thing because there was nothing better than galloping through the woods when the moon was full and having the wolf pack run after us whilst we threw scraps of meat for them. **

**I went to bed at dawn and I dreamed of Paradise and the vast open plains where vampires could hunt and ride in peace without stopping. **

**I saw the ghostly forms of those vampires who had left us and I could see Darryl smiling at me and waving from his seat. Darryl knew no more pain and he knew no more hardship plus he was with Arra and they looked happy to be reunited again forever. **

**I missed them all terribly but I knew that I would be reunited with them again one day then we would all hunt and hawk forever more whilst watching down on the mountain and its inhabitants. **

"**Larten I had a dream about Paradise again" I said when the sun had set and we were both up and awake.**

"**What did you see this time darling?" Larten asked me.**

"**I saw Darryl and Arra. They were smiling and waving at me. I saw the other vampires too; they were riding around and having fun. Their spirits look happy" I replied.**

"**Well surely then that is a good dream" Larten said in reply.**

"**It is a good dream but I miss our friends so much Darryl especially as he did not need to die and Arra made the ultimate sacrifice for our clan" I said as I tried hard not to cry.**

"**That is the vampire way. I never said that it would be easy darling but you have me and Gavnur to watch over you not to mention Seba, Darren and the rest of the Princes plus Vanez" Larten replied as he wiped away a tear from my eye.**

"**I guess so but it is not the same without them here. I feel so lost and alone sometimes Larten it is silly. I feel like I have you but with the others it is different because they are your friends. They accept me because of you but I do not know if they actually like me for myself" I said ruefully. **

"**Everybody in the clan likes you dearest and you heard the Generals cheering for you when you took your last three Trials. I can guarantee that nobody will ever love you or care about you and for you as much as I do though. That is why I wanted you as my blessed mate; I wished to show the whole clan exactly what you meant to me and what you still mean to me" Larten said. **

"**Aww Larten you can be so sweet sometimes. I bet that I love you more than what you love me though" I smiled.**

"**Are you sure about that? I meant every word of my mateship vows my darling and nothing will ever change that no matter what happens" Larten replied.**

"**I know that but we have had a pretty rough time recently with Jiana's death then Darryl having to leave us in such a manner and now that I have two more Trials to pass my ordeal is not over yet" I replied.**

"**You just focus on passing your Trials Sarah and I will stand by you no matter what you have to face for that is what I promised you with the Vampire Gods as my witnesses and nothing will stop me from standing by you. Des Tiny is dead so not even he or his now extinct vampaneze hoard can stop us now" Larten said as he held me close to him for what seemed like the first time in a while.**

**I knew that Larten was right but it was hard to be away from the clan members who had been such good friends to me. I knew that I had to concentrate on my next two Trials and I knew that Larten was right about everything but I still cried and I was still emotional. It was the one part of my humanity that had remained with me. **

**I knew that I had just enough time to grab a snack before I had to go and pick my fourth Trial of Death. I fixed myself a bowl of stew which I wolfed down and then I very calmly but stiffly made my way to the Prince's Dome to pick out my fourth Trial. I begged the Vampire Gods that my fourth Trial would have nothing to do with water or fighting to the death but I knew that it was all luck and that the Vampire Gods had no say in what Trial I picked out. **

"**Trial number 145 The Gauntlet" Prince Arrow announced. **

"**OK this is going to be another tough test of endurance I see" I said.**

"**You must run through the gauntlet without flitting whilst dodging the obstacles and at the end you have to climb up a cliff and retrieve a hidden stone with a mark on it before the clock reaches zero. Is that clear?" Prince Arrow explained.**

"**It is clear but how long do I get?" I asked.**

"**Ten minutes is the maximum time allowed" Prince Arrow said.**

"**OK I will begin training straight away. I will have to work on my speed and my dodging skills for this Trial" I said.**

**I was just about to leave when Prince Arrow called me back and he said;**

"**Did I mention that you get a different set of obstacles each time? That way you never know what you are facing" **

"**Oh right well that makes things difficult I guess that I will have to train and learn how to dodge everything so that I am prepared to face any obstacle that is thrown at me" I said as I turned to leave and start training for this latest Trial of Death. **

"**Larten, do you know about the Gauntlet?" I asked. **

"**I do as it was one of Arra's Trials of Death when she took them for the second time. That was when we had only been mates for a couple of weeks and so that she could focus she banished me from her quarters but she let me train her" Larten explained.**

"**So your honeymoon period was cut short. That is so unfair but I guess that she made it up to you when she could" I said.**

"**Arra never made it up to me; she assumed that I would not mind and she focused on her Trials. To Arra mating came near the bottom of her priority list as to her it was not important compared to her duelling, duties and her Trial training" Larten said.**

"**Oh right well at least you know about the Gauntlet. I guess that when you were training Arra you found it hard to concentrate as you had other things on your mind whilst Arra was showing off her skills" I said cheekily.**

"**It was like that to start with but she knocked some sense into me and after that I respected her wishes. Arra was quite a forceful character and if she did not want to do something nothing could make her do it; I suffered a few well aimed punches from her when she was in one of her moods and yet she was only moody when I was not satisfying her. Ironic really" Larten replied. **

"**Yes that is kind of ironic but anyway I had better begin training now. What am I facing Larten?" I asked.**

"**You are facing a range of obstacles from spiked walls and falling rocks to all kinds of things that you have to either climb up, jump over or dodge completely" Larten said.**

"**I guess that my acrobatic skills will be of use to me but speed is the issue because I have to dodge everything and then have enough time left to climb up that cliff, find the stone and come back down again. Time wise it is a total nightmare" I replied.**

"**Do not worry about it darling. In training there is no time limit until the actual final run through. All you have to do is remember how to dodge or get past each different obstacle and the rest will come naturally as when you begin dodging one object you will feel a sense of rhythm and then you will be able to get past the rest because they are timed" **

"**Oh right like dancing then? Dodge to the beat as it were" I said.**

"**Yes that is one way of describing it Sarah. Watch me run through it first so you get the idea; if you want music to help you keep on time that can be arranged as that is not against the rules" Larten said as he went to the start of the obstacle course and I watched him as he counted out a rhythm before he got over the first obstacle and then he kept on going until he vaulted up the cliff and came back to me holding the stone so that I knew what I was looking for when I eventually got up to the cliff.**

**I was alright to begin with but the thing that I hated was vaulting over this big rock onto a bridge that was burning. The bit that got me was crossing the bridge before it fell to the ground taking me with it. You only got a few seconds to run the bridge and get up the ladder onto the next obstacle before the next obstacle began to move and if you missed it then you would either lose your timing or fall to the ground which was a fail. **

**I did my best but it was not easy and I crashed to the ground several times before I finally got the timing right and that was before the obstacles were moved around again which would give me another set of timings to learn. **

**I tried extremely hard to master each obstacle and each set of timings so that I would be prepared for my Trial. I was grateful for the period of preparation that I had as not only did it give me time train but it gave me time to heal between each Trial. Larten cheered me on all the way and he always caught me if I fell to prevent further injury. **

**In order to help me keep timings he danced with me and that provided a visual memory for me so that each one of my dodges would be associated with a dance step to help me remember what came next as it were. **

**Singing helped me also and at the end of my second training session I had got the hang of most obstacles. A few were giving me problems but that could be worked on in the final training session. **

**I was not allowed to know what obstacles that I would be facing or what order they would be put in so I trained with as many different timings as possible in order to prepare myself and I made sure that I was as flexible as I possibly could be so that I could slip past most things by flipping and side dodging them so that I could conserve my energy for the cliff climb. **

**The cliff was huge! It was very wide and very high and I basically had to either climb up it or vault it and then find the tiny blue stone that had been marked with an "X" as there were lots of blue stones up there. **

**I trained hard and I pushed myself to my limits but I had not done it with a time limit yet and with only ten minutes to complete the Trial I had to speed up on some sections but I could not flit so I had to control my speed. It is so hard to control your speed when you are pumped full of adrenaline and ready to face a challenge like this. **

"**Larten I have not been timed yet. I need to know if I can do this Trial within the time limit or there is no point in training like this if my timings are out of whack" I said.**

"**I will time you. I will just fetch the timer and then you will know if you are in time or not and it is about time that we worked on your speed control anyway" Larten said then he left to fetch the sand timer that we had to time Trials with. It was quite accurate so it was a good way of measuring if I was in time or not.**

**My speed control was hard to master because I was so pumped at the beginning that I was nearly at flitting speed anyway so I had to be really careful about not hitting full flitting speed as that would be a fail. **

"**You are way too quick at the start, you must slow it down and remember the timing of that rock fall or you will be flattened" Larten shouted at me from the other end of the course.**

**I am sorry Larten it is just so hard to dodge those rocks and be slow enough not to hit flitting speed but quick enough to keep my timing and my rhythm going" I complained.**

"**Nobody said that this was easy. Watch me do it if that helps" Larten replied.**

"**OK you do it if you are so good" I called back. I went back to the start and I watched Larten dodge the falling rocks and then he hopped up onto the next set of equipment before he ran over the burning bridge and then he returned to me with the stone with three minutes to spare.**

"**Wow you really know what you are doing. I wish that you could take this Trial for me darling. You make it look to easy" I said.**

"**I know you do but that is neither here nor there. We have a lot of work to do and you are nowhere near ready yet. You only have three hours left before you do your final run through before the real thing" Larten said.**

"**I know that dearest that is why I am working so hard" I replied.**

"**What you need is a something to help you remember when to slow down and speed up. I have an idea" Larten replied with a suggestive look.**

"**Surely you are not thinking about mating at a time like this! You men are all the same" I said.**

"**Well not exactly. You know that when we do mate we play with each other, we tease each other and we tell each other to speed up and slow down to make the feeling last? Well imagine that in your head when you are dodging those rocks and that may help your timing" Larten said.**

"**Oh right I understand now. That may help me because you know what I am like but I will have to try not to get too excited as it were. If I get too stimulated I will lose my focus and then I am a goner. It is risky" I replied.**

"**Just try to focus on the rocks and forget those sensations. Switch them off like you did with your urge to breathe in the pool" Larten said.**

"**OK Larten if you think that will help I will give it a go" I replied and I gave it a try. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to pick up the timings with this memory aid to help me. I tried my best not to get too distracted because the thoughts of Larten and I together filled my head but I had to focus on the rhythm and not on the moves that we performed as it were. **

**I eventually got the hang of it and I dodged the falling rocks with ease. I flipped through them and knocked them out of the way to make the path to the burning bridge clear. I ran across the burning bridge and launched myself at the cliff. I dug my nails deep into the rock of the cliff and I climbed up it quickly and then I began my search for the marked stone. The stone was tiny and when it was mixed in with the other stones it was damn near impossible to find but eventually I got it and I raced to the finish line. I had done it! I had perfected my timings and now I was ready to take the Trial for real. **

"**You had one minute to spare when you got back here so you did really well and you are now ready to take the Trial for real" Larten said.**

"**I know but I still have an hour to go before I do this thing for real. I think that I should run through it again just to be doubly sure that I can do it" I said.**

"**No Sarah you need to rest and clear your mind. Anyway you need some balm put on those bruises remember?" Larten said sternly.**

"**OK then if that is what you say then I will of course obey you but I am so pumped right now" I replied.**

"**I will meet you in the medical wing and tell the medic to make some bruise reducing patches" Larten instructed me.**

"**As you wish my love" I replied and I left to sort it out. I loved Larten and although he was my blessed mate he could still order me to do something but he normally never did. I knew that he knew best so I just followed his instructions. **

"**Medic, medic where are you?" I called out when I got to the medical wing.**

"**I am over here sorting out Gavnur's arm. He has had a bad landing when he was fixing the ceiling of his quarters. The ladder broke under him and he fell badly. The ladder splintered and pierced his arm" The medic said.**

**I looked at Gavnur's arm with a piece of wood sticking out of it and it was a horrible sight.**

"**Think yourself lucky that the ladder pierced your arm and not your heart" I said.**

"**I guess but it really hurts. This will damage my good looks" Gavnur laughed.**

"**What looks?" I laughed back.**

"**Why you little b…" Gavnur began then stopped when he saw Larten towering over him.**

"**Hey Larten I have to wait as you can see Gavnur has a much more serious injury" I said.**

"**You think that wound is bad? I heard what you were about to say Gavnur before you saw me. You will pay for that" Larten said sternly.**

"**Leave it Larten we were just messing around and anyway I deserved it for implying that Gavnur is not good looking" I explained.**

"**Oh right. You were taunting each other in jest?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes that is all. It is funny to see you getting worked up like this" I said.**

"**I am only looking after you and using bad language in front of a lady or calling a lady by a rude name is very bad manners" Larten said and he said it he glared at Gavnur.**

"**I am sorry Larten for insulting your mate. Can you forgive me?" Gavnur pleaded.**

"**Sarah do you forgive Gavnur's foul language? Or what would have been foul language if I had not have come along" Larten asked me.**

"**Of course I forgive you Gavnur, unlike some people I can take a joke" I said smiling at Gavnur who grinned back.**

"**This matter is over. How long will it take you to fix Gavnur's arm up Medic? Sarah has not got long before her next Trial" Larten asked.**

"**It will take as long as it takes. You cannot rush this because if I cut a vein when I am removing the wooden splinter Gavnur could bleed to death and you would not want that now would you Larten?" The medic said as he very slowly removed the splinter out of Gavnur's arm.**

"**I understand that. We have had enough deaths already this year we do not want another" Larten said.**

"**I am in so much pain Larten it is unreal" Gavnur said as the medic got the wood splinter out with a slow, gentle tug.**

"**If Sarah can give birth then a wood splinter is nothing you big baby. You never were good with pain. You yelped like a wounded dog when I blooded you" Larten said.**

"**That was the vampire blood hitting my heart. It hurt me alright" Gavnur said as the medic began to stitch up Gavnur's arm. **

"**It hurt me too but I made no complaints did I? I am used to pain though because I like to live a rough life. You were always attached to human comforts" Larten replied as he started to apply the bruise patches to my body. I was covered in bruises and I had new scars from where I had taken my second Trial. **

"**Just think Gavnur if I can do it and I am twenty four then you can do it and you are so much older than me. I have been through hell and yet I survived it so stop complaining about a little cut arm when there are so many things out there that are worse like rabid bears" I reminded Gavnur. **

"**Alright Sarah I will try and toughen myself up. I forgot that you had been mauled by a bear" Gavnur said.**

"**Sarah it is time to go. Your Trial will begin soon" Larten said.**

"**Alright Larten I will see you later Gavnur" I said and I left the medical wing covered in bandages and bruise patches. I felt them working but they did not smell that good.**

**I entered the gauntlet, the real gauntlet this time and not the training one. I saw what obstacles I had to face. I had a lot of things to vault over and climb up and then I had some things to crawl under before a huge net full of rocks would be emptied and then the burning bridge was next before I got to the cliff. **

"**Sarah are you ready?" Prince Mika asked. **

"**I am as prepared and as ready now as what I will ever be. I have done all that I can to prepare myself. It is up to the Vampire Gods now and me" I replied.**

"**Then go for it and may the luck of the vampires be with you Sarah" Prince Mika said. **

"**Larten I will see you at the finish line. I love you lots" I said as I stepped onto the start line.**

"**Go for it Sarah and remember what I said to you earlier. I love you too by the way" Larten replied.**

"**Begin your passage" Prince Mika said and I vaulted up and over the first obstacle before flipping over the next two simultaneously. I dodged a few shurikens that were being thrown at me and there was a volley of spear heads that came out of holes in the sides of the gauntlet. I crawled on the ground and they went over my head. Next came the tricky part of the course which was the net of rocks and the burning bridge that I had to get through. I froze at the sight of the net of rocks hanging over my head because I knew that if I took one more step the net would fall and the rocks would come crashing down around me. I spent a few moments meditating before I made a dash for the burning bridge that was near collapse. **

**I dodged most of the rocks but one came down and it landed on my shoulder and bounced off and that hurt me let me tell you but I had to focus on the bridge. I stepped onto it and it fell beneath my feet! I could feel myself falling to the ground my Trial was over I had failed…**

**Or so I thought but by some miracle the bridge did not fall completely it fell sideways like a ladder so I climbed up it burning my hands badly but it was either that or fail. My whole body was burnt and I was in a lot of pain but I managed to use what energy I had left to leap onto the cliff and I dug my nails into the rock. I climbed up it slowly. So slowly. Each movement I made was made in agony but I reached the top and I started scratting around like a chicken whilst I tried to find this stone with the mark on it. I saw it by my left foot so I picked it up and I descended the cliff very slowly and I walked to the finish line as it was not far to go. I had to jump up and over a fence of barbed wire first but once I was over that I made it and I presented the stone to Prince Mika before I collapsed on the ground with smoke inhalation and exhaustion.**

**I woke up in the medical wing in pain. I looked like an Egyptian mummy because I was covered in bandages and they were wet. I guess that was to soothe the burns. I was tired and hurting but I had passed my fourth Trial. **

"**I have never seen anybody so determined to pass a Trial of Death Sarah. You suffered fifteen per cent burns on that bridge but you did what you had to do" Larten said to me.**

"**I was not trained for that circumstance but I felt a presence with me on that bridge willing me on like I just had to pass because I had come so far" I explained.**

"**That was the adrenaline in your body and I think that Arra was watching over you because I felt a presence too" Larten said to me. **

"**Oh right. I think that she would be proud of me and my efforts so far. I have been through hell these past few nights but I am determined to pass these Trials no matter what" I replied.**

"**Arra was a stickler for rules and she loved a challenge. That is why she took the Trials of Death three times and she passed them all without flinching. You have done well but with these burns the next Trial may be a problem with your restricted movement" Larten replied as he dressed my burns because they were seeping through the bandages that I had on.**

"**Ow Larten that hurts" I said with fire in my eyes.**

"**I am sorry but I have to do this to prevent infection" Larten said as he tried to heal my burns with his spit and he put salve on the ones that had to heal on their own. **

"**You are very strong. I have never met anybody who can resist this amount of punishment and come out the other side even stronger. I have patched you up as best as I can since the Medic is not that good and I do not want him looking at your body without me there" Larten said. **

"**Thank you but now I must rest and heal as best as I can before I have to pick out my next and final Trial" I said.**

"**I will stay with you tonight in case you need anything; we have one of the private rooms down there. Gavnur is OK for I spoke to him earlier and he is going to be fine. Also the Princes wanted to tell you congratulations and that they were impressed with your determination to finish the Trial when others have faltered" Larten told me.**

"**Thank you for passing on their message and thank you for staying with me because I know how much you hate this place since the battle when Arra was taken into Paradise" I replied solemnly.**

"**Well I am your blessed mate and my place is by your side through the good times and the bad times; no matter what you are my main priority my love and nothing will harm you whilst I am here. I would rather die before letting anybody lay one hand on you" Larten responded. **

"**That is a very loyal thing of you to say. I never doubted your loyalty to me but I needed proof of it and you have given me that proof" I replied as I eased myself into bed as I was still very sore. I had to lie down on my side as my back and front were burned and bruised. Larten lay down in the coffin next to my bed as there was not enough room for us both in the medical bed. I was covered over with his cloak as normal and I lay on the side close to the coffin so that we were as close as what we could be to one another since Larten could not hold me close to him like he usually did. **

**I did not sleep very well because I was hurting and sore. I had another bad dream and this time it was about Des Tiny exacting his revenge from beyond the grave and Steve Leopard was coming for me, he was going to kill me and my days were numbered. I woke up in a cold sweat and I was not well at all. **

**I had been moaning in my sleep and tossing about like I was fighting something and I had no recollection of it but Larten had told me about it because it had disturbed him as he was a light sleeper. **

**I felt bad but it was not my fault and Larten did not mind much, normally if I started to shift around he would shake me until I woke up and then I would normally go back to sleep and I would be alright but sometimes I would wake up and get up because I would not be tired. **

**I did not mind getting up but it messed up my schedule so I had to be careful not to get up in the daytime too often. I did not mind being in the medical wing but I had been in and out so many times it was stupid. I had suffered more injuries than most people had and I was not the pretty girl that I had once been. **

**I had a scarred and patched up body that needed to have a long time to heal fully but alas I only had a few hours before I had to draw my fifth and final Trial out of the bag. **

**If I had still been half-blooded I would not have survived so long but I had survived and I had recovered remarkably well even if it was not a full recovery. If my friends or family saw me now they would not recognise me because the years on the road had taken its toll on me and living in the mountain was still hard not with the harsh winters and the weather was always unpredictable. I loved my life though and I would not trade it for the world. **

"**How are you feeling tonight my love?" Larten asked me when he eventually woke up.**

"**I am stiff and sore but I feel OK. I had another bad dream though and I have been awake for ages wishing that my body was not so damaged because I am not very attractive in this state" I muttered quietly.**

"**Nonsense that is total rubbish, you know how I feel about you dearest. I would not care if you lost both eyes and an arm because I would still love your personality" Larten replied.**

"**Well I hope that I do not lose any limbs or my eyes because then I could not gaze into your eyes anymore my love" I replied. **

"**What is it about my eyes that ladies love so much?" Larten asked himself whilst he was looking at me as if he wanted me to answer.**

"**It is the colour of them, that deep, piercing blue that no-one can resist. It is like your eyes can see into people's souls or something and when I look at you I feel all funny inside, I cannot explain it" I responded. **

"**You need to exercise before your next Trial as you will get stiff otherwise" Larten said.**

"**I can barely move as it is because the wounds keep opening up if I move too much" I complained.**

"**Oh right well I have healed as many of them as I can but I can try and heal them more if you want, would you like me to try? " Larten asked me.**

"**Anything to stop this pain my love" I replied.**

"**Alright well I will have to take the dressings off and wash the wounds out first then I can give it a go" Larten said.**

"**Thank you for this Larten" I said as I began to un-wrap the bandages on my body and on my arms. **

"**It is no trouble my love. I just hope that your accelerated healing has healed you a bit over night because I did as much as I could yesterday. Let us see how much better you are" Larten said as he examined my burned and bruised body.**

"**Well how is it?" I asked.**

"**You are still badly burned but the bruising has reduced slightly. I can try and heal you up a bit more before your next Trial" Larten said as he carefully wiped over my burns and bruises with a cloth and warm water. **

"**Ow that is really sore Larten" I said.**

"**Well it is a bad burn, this will have to heal on its own but I can try and heal some of the damage. Stand up and I will give it a go" Larten said.**

"**I stood up stiffly and I held onto a hand rail whilst Larten began to lick my wounds slowly as his spit would heal them. Vampire spit can heal most small wounds and burns but it cannot heal everything and deep wounds must heal on their own as vampire spit is not powerful enough to heal a deep wound and that is why vampires have accelerated healing powers. **

"**How is that now?" Larten asked.**

"**I can feel it working but I am still stiff" I replied.**

"**At least it is working a little bit" Larten said between licks.**

"**The pain has faded slightly but I will still take a couple of days to heal up but this burn on my chest is the main concern because if I draw out the Path of Needles or a similar Trial how on Earth am I supposed to do it?" I asked.**

"**We will worry about that later dear but now our main concern is getting you fit enough to pick out your next Trial before you begin training for it" Larten advised me.**

"**I guess that is the wise thing to do. I am still apprehensive though because to fail at the final hurdle would be a total disaster for us both" I explained.**

"**You will not fail Sarah and if anything happens to you I will plunge myself onto those stakes first to give you a softer landing" Larten laughed.**

"**That is great thinking. That way we will both die and enter Paradise together and the clan will have to cope without us. It is kind of romantic in a way but I have no desire for either of us to die" I smiled back as I was bandaged up again with my now slightly healed body feeling better. **

"**There you are my love all bandaged up and healed slightly more than what you were before" Larten said as he tied the bandage up. **

"**Thank you, I feel better and I think that I will be able to pick out my fifth Trial later tonight" I said.**

"**I hope so Larten, I want to get the Trials of Death completed and out of the way and then we can return to the Cirque Du Freak where we belong" I suggested. **

"**Yes I think that is a good idea but I would like to take some time out and go back to one of our homes so that we can spend some time together alone and in peace" Larten replied.**

"**Yes that would be good I would like to go back to the hayloft" I said.**

"**That is all the way in England, I wanted to go back to the manor house that we visited before unless you want to go to a hotel for a bit whilst we decide which path to take" Larten said.**

"**I had forgotten about that manor house, I like the hotel idea as I need some human comforts. I want to know what the year is, what the date is and what is on TV nowadays" I said. **

"**Alright then a hotel it is and of course I shall spare no expense for you as we both need a break from this vampire lifestyle once in a while" Larten said.**

"**Well we never did celebrate Christmas at the Cirque Du Freak and I have my skating outfit hanging up ready to go but we need to make that outfit for Truska as we said that we would" I reminded Larten who smiled at the thought of seeing Truska dressed up like a Christmas tree. **

**Then I noticed the medic coming to our door so I let him in.**

"**How are you tonight Sarah? You are meant to draw your Trial in half an hour" The medic said.**

"**I am Ok thank you Medic. I am on my way to the Prince's Dome now but I remembered something that I have to do when I return to the Cirque Du Freak" I explained as I left the medical wing and then I headed off to the Prince's Dome with Larten following me like a big, red shadow. **

"**Sarah you are looking well after your very brave run in the Gauntlet. I have never seen a vampiress grab onto a bridge with such determination to survive. I saw you climb up it like a ladder when it collapsed and you were burned badly but you somehow managed to hold on and climb up it regardless of the fire. You were amazing to watch and I saw you training, I know that you worked really hard and it paid off in the end" Prince Darren said to me. **

"**I was put through my paces as it were and I trained relentlessly" I replied as I stuck my hand into the bag and picked out another numbered stone.**

"**Number 235 Balance Beams" Prince Darren announced.**

"**OK that sounds easy to me. I perform balancing acts all the time and I am experienced on the Bars" I said with a grin.**

"**It is not that simple Sarah. You have to cross a moving rounded beam that spins round and round whilst you cross it and you are walking over a pit of jagged stones and stakes 9ft off of the ground" Prince Darren explained. **

"**Oh right then I understand. Can I cross in any way?" I asked.**

"**You must cross on your feet. If you slip off or fall down you fail and if you grab on with your hands whilst falling you fail too. It is sheer balance and nothing else and no flitting over the beam either" Prince Darren said.**

"**Oh right then I will begin training straight away" I said and I left for the training hall. **

"**Larten I need help. I can barely walk let alone balance on a moving beam and cross it" I said as I looked up at the training beam. **

"**Well there is no advice that I can give you as I have never done this Trial and nobody I know has ever passed it. This Trial has taken many lives and it is the worst one that you could have picked except for the Blooded Boars or maybe the Hall of Flames" Larten said sadly.**

"**Well if that is the case I had better make my peace with the Vampire Gods and set my affairs in order instead of wasting what time I have left training for this impossible Trial" I replied with sadness in my voice and tears in my eyes.**

"**If that is what you truly feel then you can retire from the Trials and face the penalty for failing as retiring is classed as failure" Larten replied as he held me close to him.**

"**I do not wish to but I would rather spend my time left as a free vampiress rather than getting stressed out and upset over this Trial. I will tell the Princes that I have decided to retire. How long will I have left after I announce my retirement?" I asked Larten.**

"**Traditionally you get three days to set your affairs in order and then at midnight on the fourth day you are collected from your quarters, prepared and then lead to the Hall of Death where you will be dropped on the stakes until you die" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right well that is not a long time. I have to make sure that everything that I have always wanted to do I get done and I hope that you will be there with me at the end" I said.**

"**So this is your decision? You are just going to give up without trying to pass this Trial and of course I will be there with you. I will follow you in death but I do not agree with giving up like this" Larten said. **

"**What choice have I got? I will train and fail the Trial or retire with honour and then enter Paradise soon after" I asked. **

"**You must not give up like this Sarah. I will not let you do this and I will do whatever it takes to help you through this Trial. You thought the same thing about the Murky Pool and you passed that Trial. Would Darryl want you to surrender? If you do surrender then he will have died for no reason" Larten replied.**

"**I guess that is true. I would never hear the end of it if I surrendered. I would be taunted in Paradise for eternity by Darryl, Arra, Prince Paris and my spirit would get no peace. You would taunt me also I am sure" I responded.**

"**I would not taunt you but we would not get any rest. Besides we are both too young to die" Larten said.**

"**Oh alright Larten I will not surrender I will train and I will do my very best to pass this nasty Trial" I said.**

"**That is more like the Sarah that I know. I will get somebody to help you because I have no idea how to pass this Trial" Larten replied.**

"**Thank you Larten. If Arra was here I am sure that she would have a strategy for this kind of Trial. It is something that would suit her perfectly but alas I am not Arra and I never will be" I said. **

"**Arra may not be here physically but she is all around us and I am sure that she would hear you if you asked her for help. It is strange but if you were to pray to Arra then maybe she could visit you in a dream or something and help you" Larten suggested.**

"**Do you think that it will work?" I asked.**

"**I have no idea but it is worth a try Sarah. No harm can come from you trying" Larten replied.**

"**Alright I will give it a go. When is the best time to ask?" I asked.**

"**Any time you like. There is no set time but just make sure that when you do it you are thinking only of Arra" Larten replied.**

"**I will give it a go now if that is OK with you?" I asked.**

"**Go for it Sarah and let us see what happens" Larten replied.**

"**Arra I ask you if you can hear me. I am asking that you hear my call and help me with this Trial. I ask that you watch over me and guide me. I ask that you watch over my dear Jiana and I ask this in my name and in Larten's name. If you can hear me please send me a sign" I said out loud with my head facing Paradise. **

**Nothing happened and I was disappointed. **

"**Well it was worth a shot Larten. It is I alone who will have to face this Trial and pass it" **

"**I guess so but at least you tried" Larten replied.**

**Just then I heard an almighty crash and I saw that a sword on a rack fell to the floor and then Arra's staff went crashing to the ground as well. **

"**What on Earth caused that?" I asked.**

"**Gravity maybe after all those racks are pretty old" Larten replied.**

"**Or it is Arra sending us a sign" I said.**

**Then Larten looked at me all funny and he fell to the ground landing on his back.**

"**What the hell just happened?" I asked.**

"**I was pushed over. I felt a huge force knocking me to the ground that I could not resist" Larten explained.**

"**It must be Arra then showing us that she is here in this room" I said.**

**Arra if you are here show me some other sign so that I know it is you and not my imagination" Larten said.**

**At this point I felt a force pushing me near to the door so I opened it and walked out as if Arra wanted to be alone with Larten. I tried to listen in but there was silence. I wanted to walk in but I dared not disturb the ghost of Arra and Larten together.**

**Eventually I got a feeling that told me that told me to go back in the room so I did.**

"**What the hell happened Larten?" I asked.**

"**Arra was here in this room. I could feel her all around me and there was this pure white light that surrounded me. I was engulfed by it and I do not know what happened. I could feel the same tingling sensation that I used to get when I saw Arra and then the light faded; then you came back in here" Larten said.**

"**Wow that must have been experience for you Larten. I did not know that spirits of dead vampires could come back to us" I said.**

"**They cannot come back but Arra and I had a special bond. We had unfinished business and that is why she came back. I had to release her as I was holding on to her in my heart and until I did that she could not fully enter Paradise as a free spirit" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right I understand. Did you release her?" I asked.**

"**Of course I did and she forgave me for my mistakes then the light vanished" Larten replied.**

"**What about my Trial though? Can Arra help me or not?" I asked.**

"**I am afraid not Sarah because spirits are not allowed to interfere with the living as it messes with the fabric of life and death" Larten said.**

"**Oh right I understand. If they could we would have ghosts everywhere and then there would be no need for Paradise as no ghost would want to leave their loved ones behind" I replied.**

"**Precisely now are you going to start training for this Trial?" Larten asked.**

"**Of course I am but I am still freaked out by what just happened" I said.**

"**It was rather strange but I feel better now. I have been trying so hard not to let Arra go that I forgot that I had to release her for her sake. I miss Arra so much it is unbearable but I have you now so I must take care of you and I must honour my mateship vows" Larten replied as I hopped up onto the balance beam for the first time. The beam started twisting around and it was really fast. It was damn near impossible to stay on it and I could take three steps before I lost my balance and fell off into Larten's arms. **

**I tried to do it really quickly and I tried to do it slowly but it was no good I just fell off time after time. **

"**This is hopeless Larten. I am never going to pass this Trial" I said as I fell off for the umpteenth time. I was tired, hurting and frustrated.**

"**Just keep trying Sarah you will do it in the end. Try using dance steps or go on to your tip toes" Larten suggested.**

**I tried to dance across the beam but it was useless and when I was on tiptoes it helped but I still fell off. **

"**This Trial has got me stumped. I have no idea how to do it or how to pass it" I said.**

"**This is useless. Come down and have a break Sarah for you have done loads tonight. There is nothing more to be done tonight" Larten said.**

**I hopped down off of the beam and drank deeply from my hip flask, I was totally parched. **

**I felt like this was the end of me. I was petrified of failing my Trial and being executed. Just then Prince Darren walked in. He had come to check on my progress.**

"**How is your training going Sarah?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**It is awful Sire. I keep falling off and I can only take three steps before I fall" I explained.**

"**Well you will have to keep on trying. You have done so well up until this point and you mustn't give up now Sarah" Prince Darren said.**

"**I have no intention of giving up Sire. I will do whatever it takes to pass this fifth Trial and truly take my place in the Clan" I responded. **

"**I am glad to hear it and please don't call me Sire anymore. Call me Darren as we are good friends and we have been for years" Prince Darren said.**

"**OK if that is your wish S- Darren sorry" I said.**

"**I am really worried about this Trial Sarah. You are not doing very well and you keep falling off at the same point so maybe it is another timing issue" Larten said.**

"**OK well I will see if it is my timing or if it is just too hard for me to balance" I said as I hopped back onto the balance beam and I tried again to cross to the other platform. This time I waited slightly longer before I took a step and just before I fell off I jumped up and then I landed on a slightly flatter part of the beam and then I hopped onto the next section and then I had to dodge a sweeping arm as well as crossing the beam without falling off. **

**It was so hard and I fell off twice more before I eventually did it and I stepped onto the opposite platform. I was elated that I had finally done it and I had learned the secret to success-jump up just before you fall and land on another part of the beam then cross over quickly before the beam gets too fast.**

"**Well done Sarah. I thought that you would figure it out eventually and you still have two nights of practice to perfect your crossing" Larten said to me as I hopped off of the finish platform and into his waiting arms. Larten took great care when he caught me because I was still sore and although I did not show it I was in a lot of pain. **

**I was pleased that I had finally figured out how to pass the Trial and now I just wanted to get it out of the way so that I could leave the mountain and return to the Cirque Du Freak in time for Christmas. **

**Larten hated Christmas with a vengeance as when he had been human he had always been too poor to give or receive a gift so he saw it as a waste of time until Arra came along and tried to change his mind about it because she loved Christmas. **

**Arra had spent her Christmases with Lady Evanna as a servant girl before she was released. Lady Evanna loved Christmas and she made sure that her servants loved it as much as she did, she conjured presents out of thin air and she transformed a few twigs into a glowing Christmas tree. **

**Larten tried to keep Arra happy by celebrating it with her but he never really got the point of it and he called it a: **

"**Frivolous human tradition that has no meaning to vampirists like me" Arra had tried to change his mind by spoiling him and she showed him how fun it was to feast, drink and be merry. **

**Arra said that Christmas was the one time of the year when she felt "loved and safe". Larten was missing Arra so much because he had always hated being away from her at the time of year when people are supposed to come together and celebrate. **

**Now that Arra was gone Larten regretted his decision to stay with the Cirque Du Freak instead of returning to her at Christmas when he had the chance because then he could have spent more time with her and then he would have had some more memories of her instead of being so dedicated to his duties. **

**One year though Arra was bored and she left the mountain alone with nothing but her weapons and a set of spare clothes. Arra flitted through the night to get to the Cirque Du Freak to visit Larten. **

**Larten had not been expecting her so when she turned up exhausted and weak he had to take care of her but he was seeing someone else at the time so he was torn between them. **

**As a result of this a vicious fight had broken out between Arra and the other woman who was with Larten at the time and Arra was banned from the Cirque Du freak permanently for her conduct. **

**It would not have been so bad if Arra had not walked in on Larten and the other woman in a compromising position. Arra had heard someone scream and she went to investigate and that is when she discovered Larten and this other woman having sex. **

**The scream had come from the woman when Larten had dug his nails into her fingers in order to blood her whilst he was sleeping with her. Arra had heard everything and she knew from experience that no-one screamed like that unless they had a good reason to do so.**

**After that unfortunate incident Larten and Arra decided that they should separate for a while because Arra was one of those vampiresses who got jealous when she saw other women with Larten and Larten had really pissed her off by getting with somebody else when she had intended to reinstate their mateship again. **

**Arra had even decided to join the Cirque Du Freak but it did not work out that way…or so Larten told it to me that way. I was not sure if that was really the case but I did not want to upset Larten so I left it. **

**After that event had happened Larten and Arra did not speak or see each other for a long time. Larten travelled the world and Arra who was broken hearted returned to the mountain and spent her time duelling and drinking copious amounts of alcohol to block out the pain that she felt. **

**Despite all of this Arra always hoped that Larten would return to the mountain and make her his once more and that belief kept her going. When Arra felt down or sad all she had to do was remember the nights that she had enjoyed and all of the fun that she had enjoyed when she and Larten had been together. **

**Arra had been blooded by Larten and that meant that no matter what she did Larten was inside her and that meant a lot to her. Arra always had the bracelet that Larten had given her and she also had a ring which she never took off. It was only a simple band of diamonds but it was hers and she had given Larten a necklace in return.**

**Arra had no money to speak of so she had to borrow some and then she paid it back by doing extra chores and duties around the mountain. **

**Larten still wore the necklace around his neck as he had promised never to take it off and that was OK with me as it was his way of keeping Arra with him wherever he went and Arra had done the same whilst she was alive. **

**Anyway I had spent enough time resting and listening to Larten protesting about celebrating Christmas so I returned to my training and I nailed it.**

**Suddenly the balance beam was not anywhere near as scary as what it had been and I even had a go on the real one just to test out my strategy and it worked. The real balance beam spun around really fast and the sweeping arm was pretty quick too. I had to remember when to jump and where to land for a slight miscalculation would be the end of me. **

**The real balance beam was also thinner than the training one. It was like walking on the tightrope at the Cirque Du Freak except this one was thinner, it was made of wood and it spun around. **

**I spent the next two nights on the real balance beam practicing and getting used to how thin and wobbly it was before I actually had to cross it for real. **

"**Larten have you seen how good I am on the balance beam now?" I asked.**

"**No as I have been busy with other things but let me see" Larten said.**

"**As you wish Larten" I said as I hopped up onto the starting platform and began my crossing. I was a bit wobbly but I made it across the beam and I dodged the sweeping arm by jumping up and over it.**

"**Wow Sarah you have really worked hard on this Trial. You should have no issues with it tomorrow night" Larten replied. **

"**Well I have focused on nothing else and now my training is paying off because I can do it now as where I could not do it before" I replied.**

"**The best news is that you have some free time now before tomorrow night and the other news is that you have healed up quite well now thanks to me" Larten replied. **

"**Yes I know that Larten but my accelerated healing has helped as well it was not just you" I replied.**

"**I am glad that you have healed up well enough to take the Trial tomorrow. How do you want to spend your free time?" Larten asked me.**

"**I was hoping to spend it with you in our quarters" I replied. **

"**Sorry to interrupt but you owe me a duel Larten you promised" Raven cut in.**

"**Yes I was coming to that. Are you out of mourning for Darryl now?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes and Sarah I forgive you. I knew that you were only doing what you had to do and had circumstances been different I would have done the same thing" Raven said. **

"**I am sorry that is had to be that way Raven I truly am and I regret it. Now what is all this about a duel?" I asked.**

"**Oh Larten and I had a deal that if I finished all of my duties and if I helped him with a few errands he would duel me on the Bars and teach me a few things" Raven explained.**

"**Well I have not heard about this until now Raven and it is fine by me but we have a couple of things to sort out in our quarters first do we not?" I said as I looked at Larten in a certain way.**

"**Yes Sarah and I have some cleaning to do however I will duel you tomorrow after Sarah has passed her Trial" Larten told Raven.**

"**That is fine by me Larten. I want to wish you good luck for your last Trial Sarah. I hope that you pass it with flitting colours" Raven said as she left.**

"**Come on then Larten let us go and clean up our quarters. It is a right mess in there as you do not clean them, you leave it up to me to keep the place clean" I complained.**

"**It is dusty in there I grant you but it is not that dirty. I do clean the carpet and I change the bed sheets" Larten said.**

"**You never dust or polish anything and some of the ornaments need washing. It will not take long however" I said as I entered our quarters and it was very messy. **

**I had not seen it this messy for a while. There were clothes scattered everywhere and the whole room was very dusty. You could tell that I had not been in there for a long time. I had been sleeping in the medical wing and I had not been able to clean up due to my injuries and my training schedule. **

**I had hoped that Larten would have cleaned up but he was not one for manual labour and he saw it as my duty so I did it without complaint. I did a good job and soon our quarters were all clean and neat just as they had been before I started my Trials. **

**I lay on the bed and Larten lay next to me. We had not been close for a while due to my injuries and it was not really possible or appropriate to do anything in the medical wing so we had not been together for quite a while and we had missed each other's warmth and I had missed Larten holding me whilst I slept. **

**It felt so nice to be with each other again and we kissed each other for the first time in what seemed like weeks. It had been so long that I had quite forgotten what it felt like and it took me by surprise but Larten being the same as ever made it good for me and I loved the sensation that I got from it.**

**I needed it because I felt like our bond was not as strong as it had been and where I had been training so hard I had focussed solely on that and our relationship had suffered slightly. I was moody and short tempered also if I got it wrong I became frustrated and I took it out on Larten as he was the one who was training me for the Trials in the first place.**

**I was happy that I had passed four out of five Trials and none of them had been easy but this last Trial had been the most frustrating because it had been very hard to master and there had been several times when I had felt like jacking the whole thing in and giving up. I knew that if I did that though Darryl would have died in vain. Arra would never forgive me for surrendering and neither would Larten so I pushed on through and I kept on training until I got it right. **

**I was not thinking about my Trials now though I was having a rest from that stress. I was curled up in bed and I was focussed on Larten and nothing else.**

"**Are you Ok?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am fine Larten but I am bored" I said.**

"**I can remedy your boredom if you feel up to it" Larten replied.**

"**Alright but not too much because I need my strength for tomorrow night. The last thing that I need is to be exhausted and tired before a Trial, lose my focus as a result and fail at the last hurdle" I replied.**

"**I will try and take it easy on you, after the last time I have had to try and calm myself so that it is good but not too rough" Larten said.**

"**I remember those bruises alright, it looked like I had been pinned down and forced. I had finger marks on my shoulders and bruises around my throat" I replied.**

"**I know and I apologise for that unreservedly" Larten said.**

"**I know you do, anyway I want to forget it and have some fun" I replied.**

"**Alright then I will give you fun" Larten said and we started to kiss. **

**I enjoyed myself and pretty soon I had forgotten about the Trials and I was lost in the moment, it was just Larten and I in our quarters enjoying the physical side of our blessed mateship. **

**I loved this part of being a vampiress and Larten always made it worthwhile. I laid back and let the sensations flood my body, it was more powerful than normal and it was so gentle. I loved it so much and I loved Larten even more. **

**When we had finished mating I slept well and I did not wake up until I was woken up by Larten getting up as the sun had set. I was hoarse but I felt OK and I had next to no marks on me except for the bite marks on my neck that I had asked for. **

"**That was fun Larten" I said.**

"**I hoped that you enjoyed my more gentle movements. Gentle but powerful is what I was aiming for and I think that I managed it" Larten replied as we kissed.**

"**You managed it alright" I coughed.**

"**You are a bit quiet, is your voice alright?" Larten asked.**

"**I have lost my voice I think. I have a sore throat and I am quite hoarse" I replied in a whisper.**

"**I told you not to be so vocal but if you cannot help it then this is the price for you telling me how good I am" Larten replied.**

"**I do not think that I was that bad but when you are lost in the moment you do not realise. I hope that we did not disturb anybody" I whispered with a sore throat.**

"**I hope so too but if we did disturb anyone then we will sort it out later. Right now you must prepare for your Trial. You have not got long before you face it" Larten said. **

"**I think that is a good idea but I must eat first and have a drink to try and recover my voice" I replied in a hoarse croak. **

"**Alright that is fair enough" Larten said.**

"**I had better get dressed first though. I cannot walk down into the halls in my night dress and slippers" I replied quietly.**

"**That would not be wise. You should wear something that is tight fitting so that it will not hinder you on the balance beam but not too tight fitting" Larten suggested.**

"**Well I can wear my Cirque Du Freak costume. It is tight fitting as I wear it on the high wire but it allows me to breathe and move around easily" I replied.**

"**That would work and it looks nice also but you may get some of the Generals staring at you as it is revealing" Larten said.**

"**So what Larten if they do stare at me, let them look at me but they will never touch me. It is fun to tease the Generals and they need some eye candy" I replied in my croaky voice.**

"**Alright if that is what you wish my love then so be it" Larten said. **

**So I put my Cirque Du Freak costume on and I went down to the halls for breakfast. I was starving but I had to clear my mind and think about my upcoming Trial. I scoffed a bowl of hot stew and I filled up on blood as I would need all of my strength for the Balance Beam. **

"**Morning Sarah that is a nice outfit" Vanez Blaine said to me.**

"**Thank you Vanez, it is what I wear to perform at the Cirque Du Freak. I am wearing it for my Trial later" I whispered.**

"**Why are you whispering? Do you not wish to be heard?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I have lost my voice Vanez. My throat hurts lots because of yesterday" I said.**

"**Where did you leave your voice?" Vanez laughed.**

"**Ha that is very funny Vanez" I replied sarcastically but I was still croaky.**

"**Isn't it just?" Vanez laughed as he nearly choked.**

"**Please have a bit of sense in that head of yours. You are refereeing my Trial later and you need to be on top form" I replied.**

"**I know but I am quite tired. I know exactly why you have lost your voice. I heard you begging Larten to make you come then when he did you screamed out you appreciation" Vanez said. **

"**If you heard me then the whole mountain would have heard about it as you are the biggest gossip around here" I croaked.**

"**I will not say anything but most of us heard you so they know already" Vanez replied.**

"**Oh well that was not my intention but I was lost in the moment and when it is that powerful you cannot help yourself. The sensation pulses through you and you can do nothing else" I explained.**

"**I know because my mate Suki is the same" Vanez replied as I went back to get another drink. **

"**I am sorry if I kept you awake Vanez. I hope that I did not disturb you too much" I said when I sat back on his table to finish my breakfast.**

"**You were fine Sarah. Suki kept me up anyway because she wanted to play cards all night" Vanez explained.**

"**Oh right well it is OK then but I hope that nobody else was disturbed" I replied as I left for the training halls to have another practice session before I took my Trial.**

**I was on my way to the training halls when I passed two vampires in one of the corridors talking about me.**

"**Is there a problem?" I asked.**

"**No we were just discussing your antics last night. We heard every word" One General said.**

"**Oh I am sorry. I did not mean to be so loud" I replied.**

"**It is actually quite funny because Gavnur was doing an impression of you earlier, it was rather good too" The other vampire replied.**

"**I will deal with him later believe me" I said with fire in my eyes. **

"**Well judging by your lack of voice this evening you will not be able to do much" The General laughed.**

"**I will get Larten to deal with it" I replied as I entered the training hall only to see Gavnur in there with Larten chatting about some hunting trip that they were planning. **

"**Larten the vampires outside have told me that Gavnur has done an impression of me based on last night when we were together. According to them it is quite good too" I said angrily.**

"**Is this true?" Larten asked Gavnur who had turned red.**

"**Yes Larten I was having a joke with Prince Vancha" Gavnur admitted.**

"**Is that a nice thing to do?" Larten asked.**

"**No it isn't but it was hilarious at the time. Even you would have laughed" Gavnur replied.**

"**So you think that taking the piss out of my blessed mate is hilarious do you?" Larten asked with a wicked look in his eyes.**

"**No but the impression was funny" Gavnur replied.**

"**Well if it is so funny let me see it" Larten said, he was clearly angry.**

"**Alright I will show you" Gavnur said then he proceeded to do an impression of me in a high pitched voice;**

"**Please let me come I beg you. Larten please" and then Gavnur screamed out as if he had just come.**

"**That was actually quite good Gavnur but it is not funny and you got the words wrong" I said.**

"**Gavnur that is not funny and it is quite offensive" Larten replied.**

"**I am sorry, I was only joking around. I meant no harm by it. By the way what did you say last night if I got the words wrong?" Gavnur asked.**

"**That is none of your business Gavnur you nosy, irritating, pitiful excuse for a General" I replied quietly.**

"**Look who is trying to talk! Sarah "The Screamer" Crepsley" Gavnur laughed out loud.**

"**That is quite enough Gavnur Sarah has a Trial to focus on as you know" Larten said sternly.**

"**Alright I apologise Sarah. I will not make impressions of you anymore if you don't want me too" Gavnur replied.**

"**It is fine Gavnur but keep it to yourself OK? If it gets out everybody will laugh at me" I replied.**

"**Alright I will not say anything and I will tell the others not to either" Gavnur replied.**

"**What do you mean by the others Gavnur?" I asked suspiciously.**

"**I told Prince Vancha who told the other Princes and they have told their friends I am sure" Gavnur replied.**

"**Gavnur it will go around the whole mountain now. How can I focus on my Trial if everyone is laughing at me for showing my mate how much that I love him?" I asked.**

"**I don't know Sarah. Maybe they could postpone it until it dies down" Gavnur suggested.**

"**Maybe if we explain the circumstances" I replied.**

"**Maybe the Princes will see fit to do that but it is unlikely" Larten said.**

"**We should ask them Larten as my Trial is due to begin soon" I said as I headed straight to the Prince's Dome.**

"**Look who it is fellow Princes. It is Sarah the screamer" Prince Darren announced when he saw me.**

"**Darren you will show the respect that is expected of you being in your position" Prince Mika replied.**

"**I apologise Sire" Prince Darren replied.**

"**How can we help you Sarah?" Prince Arrow asked.**

"**It is this whole thing about what Gavnur said. It has upset me and now I cannot focus on my Trial so I would like my Trial to be postponed until it dies down as it is not fair on me. It is in the rules of the Trials that somebody taking the Trials must be allowed to focus on his or her Trials without interruption" I quoted. **

"**Yes that is in the rules Sarah. Alright I will postpone your Trial for three more nights and I will instruct the heralds to tell the clan members not to mention it again" Prince Arrow replied.**

"**Thank you for this Sire. It is most appreciated" I replied in my croaky voice.**

"**At least we know one thing though" Prince Darren said.**

"**What is that Darren?" I asked.**

"**We know how much you love Larten and we know that he is very good to you as a blessed mate" Prince Darren replied.**

"**That is true Darren but now I must leave here and refocus my mind on the Trial ahead" I said as I left the Prince's Dome. **

"**Do you wish to go to our quarters and rest?" Larten asked me.**

"**No I am alright thank you. Anyway Arra's hawks need to go out" I replied.**

"**Very well Sarah but please join me later when you get back. I want to make the most of this free time" Larten replied. **

"**Alright then I swear that I will join you later" I said as we kissed before we parted. I left to take Arra's hawks out for a fly around and Larten went back to doing what he normally did when I was not around-worrying about me and watching the fights in the Halls of Sport for entertainment. **

**I took Arra's hawks out for some exercise and I also took my war horse out for a run as she had not been ridden in a while because I had been busy training. I loved riding and hawking, I felt like a sixteenth century noblewoman but I had promised Arra that I would take care of her beloved hawks and my horse was my responsibility so I had to take care of her.**

**I let my hawks fly free; I used a lure and a whistle to call them back to my fist when I wanted to. They were very well trained birds. I had no problems with them and my horse was quite happy to trot along with me whilst I was flying the hawks through the woods. I had a great time until I spotted a bear. I knew from experience how deadly bears could be so I turned around and galloped at top speed to get away before the bear spotted me and gave chase. **

"**C'mon then Diamond, Angel" I called out. Then I whistled for them and for a few seconds there was nothing then I looked up and my hawks were flying above me. **

"**C'mon then Diamond, Angel" I called out and they flew towards the mountain and landed on their perches that I had set up outside for them. **

**I was glad that my hawks were so well trained. It made my job a lot easier. I was surprised that they flew with me because hawks tended to fly for one person only but these two Harris hawks were different to my great relief. **

**I returned my war horse to the stables fed and watered her and then I locked my hawks into their aviary before I went back into the mountain in order to meet up with Larten just as I had promised. **

**I was very happy and chilled out when I returned to the mountain. My stress levels had fallen and I felt good. I was happy that I had this extra free time. I needed to escape once in a while as the mountain was smoky and it was quite depressing if you were in there all of the time. **

**It felt great to go out into the fresh air and moonlight. I sometimes wished that I could go out in to the sun but I could not so I managed. Anyway the moon and stars were much nicer than the sunlight that hurt my eyes and burned my skin and would kill me if I stayed out in it for too long. **

**I found Larten in the Halls of Sport. He was watching a duel between Vanez and Prince Darren on the Bars. Seba was refereeing the match and Larten was cheering for Prince Darren along with a few others but most vampires had got behind Vanez and were chanting his name out loudly when he made a good strike. **

**The match was soon over, I had taught Prince Darren a few of my nasty, tricky moves and Vanez was sent down to the ground with a thud, he was bleeding badly from a wound on his head that he had sustained from his bad landing. I took him to the medical wing, he got patched up and then he returned to his duties afterwards. **

**Vanez was impressed with Prince Darren's moves. He recognised some of them as my moves but the rest were Darren's own inventions. I borrowed and adapted some of Darren's moves and I used them as my own but normally I just used Arra's moves that I had changed the combinations to so that they were even more impressive than what they had been originally. **

**Nobody had beaten me or Darren on the Bars for a good while and that gave me an idea that after my Trials were over we could hold a Bars tournament where everybody could take part and have fun. **

**It would be done like a knock out contest where the best duellists would face each other until we were left with two finalists who would duel for a trophy of some kind. **

**There could be a runner up prize or a prize for the vampire who had the most wins or the most points. If a strike was worth three points and a combination was worth more points depending on how impressive it was etc. **

**I know that Arra would have loved it if she had been alive still. I spoke to Vanez about it when he had been patched up after his bad fall from the Bars.**

"**Sarah you have had such a brilliant idea. Why did I not think of it before?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I do not know but it will have to be organised and it will have to be after my Trials are completed or I cannot take part" I replied.**

"**Of course it will be after your Trials that way you can defend your title" Vanez replied.**

"**Oh yes I forgot about that Vanez my title of undefeated Bars champion" I replied and smiled at the thought of me being the undefeated Bars champion.**

**I had earned the title when I had defeated a run of specially selected opponents but I had to teach also as that was part of my duties because I was the champion. That is why I had taught Darren everything that I knew and some extra things that Arra had shown me. **

**I was so lucky and I often thought that being a vet would have been so boring compared to this. I felt honoured and so happy that I had met Larten and made a fantastic life for myself. I was a vampiress and my life had been hard but I had lots of money and my vampiric powers more than made up for the price that I had paid. **

**I was loved and everybody respected me which was good. It had not been easy though I had fought tooth and nail to get where I was. I had to fight, I had to duel and I had I had to go into battle but it was worth it just to curl up next to my beloved Larten every day when the sun rose and wake up next to him when the sun had set. **

**Now it was time for my Trial and the three nights had passed quickly. I was quite apprehensive but I knew that I had done everything that I could do to prepare myself for the Trial that nobody had ever passed except a very old vampire. He was so old that all the witnesses who had seen him do it had died long ago. **

**I was ready for this Trial. I had put my Cirque Du Freak costume on and I looked great. I was wearing this bright red glittery leotard that had been made to measure. I also had my hair done up and I had bare feet to help my balance as shoes were not advised in case they slipped but with bare feet I could grip on with my toes if it was necessary. **

"**Are you prepared Sarah?" I was asked by Prince Mika who was running this last Trial.**

"**I am as prepared now as what I was three nights ago Sire" I replied.**

"**Then may the luck of the vampires be with you in this last Trial Sarah. When you are ready mount the platform and begin your crossing" Prince Mika instructed me.**

"**As you wish Sire" I replied as I hopped up onto the first platform to begin my crossing. I was a little unsteady on my feet at the start of the Trial. I wobbled slightly but I managed to cross half of the balance beam and I jumped across onto the middle platform and as the sweeping arm came around I jumped over it and I landed on the second balance beam ready to cross it and pass the Trial.**

**I started on the second balance beam and I got half way across when I heard a cracking noise. I looked down to see that the second beam was about to split apart so I jumped up and forward but as I landed on the beam it snapped in half and I went crashing to the jagged rocks below. I heard the crowd gasp in shock. I felt something catch me as I was falling. The force of my fall had sent me and the person who had caught me to the ground in a heap. **

"**The beam cracked and snapped" I replied then I passed out.**

"**Sarah wake up. Sarah wake up" I heard as I came around from my confusion. **

"**Who is it?" I asked.**

"**It is me Sarah. I caught you but you bashed your head as we fell onto those jagged rocks" The voice replied.**

"**Who is "me"?" I asked confused.**

"**It is Larten of course. Are you OK Sarah?" Larten asked me.**

"**My head hurts. How do I know you?" I replied and asked still confused. **

"**I am your blessed mate remember?" Larten said.**

"**No I do not remember. Where is my mum? Is she at work?" I asked.**

"**No you are in the mountain. You left your parents ten years ago to join me here" Larten replied.**

"**Did I? I want to go home then. Take me home" I said. **

"**You are home Sarah. You are safe in the mountain in the medical wing" Larten explained.**

"**What mountain? I live in an English village" I replied angrily.**

"**You are in Vampire Mountain with the clan. You were taking your last Trial when the beam snapped and you went crashing to the ground. I caught you but you hit your head and now you cannot remember me" Larten explained.**

"**I wondered why I have a head ache. I really do not remember you, my last memory is of my mother tucking me into bed" I replied.**

"**Medic please come quickly. It is Sarah; she cannot remember who she is or who I am" Larten called out.**

**The medic came over and examined me.**

"**Sarah has amnesia. It means that she cannot remember anything due to her head injury. Over time the memory will come back but this will take a long time to heal" The medic said glumly.**

"**What the hell do we do in the mean time?" Larten asked.**

"**You must try and jog Sarah's memories. Take her to familiar places and look after her because there is no cure for amnesia" The medic replied.**

"**My blessed mate cannot even remember me. This is not what I had intended at all. It is my fault for landing badly" Larten said.**

"**Well there is nothing to be done. You should take her to the Prince's Dome and ask them what the ruling is on faulty equipment being used for a Trial. The Princes may rule in your favour" The medic advised.**

"**OK I will do that right away. Sarah we have to go to the Prince's Dome" Larten said as he helped me to my feet. I felt really dizzy and sick.**

**I could barely walk so Larten carried me there. **

"**Are you OK Sarah?" A guy asked me.**

"**I feel dizzy and sick. Where the hell am I? Who are you?" I asked.**

"**You are in the Prince's Dome. I am Prince Vancha remember?" **

"**No I do not remember. Why am I here?" I asked.**

"**You are a member of our clan. You live here Sarah" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**As you can see Sire Sarah has no memory of who she is or where she is. I understand that the second balance beam was rotten in the middle. What is the ruling on this?" Larten asked nervously.**

"**We have investigated and we have found that the responsibility lies with the person who is in charge of the Trial equipment and that was Samantha in this case. Samantha is responsible for the rotten beam that has caused Sarah's injury and memory loss" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Has Sarah passed her last Trial or not Sire?" Larten asked.**

"**Sarah would have passed if not for the rotten beam so we have ruled in her favour but it is Samantha's fault so she will be dealt with accordingly" Prince Arrow cut in.**

"**What do we do with Sarah in the mean time? Her memory loss is a huge problem" Larten asked.**

"**You as Sara's blessed mate you must do what you think is right. Sarah is your responsibility so you have to help her recover her memories if you can" Prince Vancha replied. **

"**Very well I will do my best" Larten replied as he picked me up and carried me off somewhere.**

"**Where are we going?" I asked Larten. I was very scared.**

"**We are going to our quarters. You need rest Sarah" Larten said.**

"**Do we share a room?" I asked.**

"**Yes we share a room because we are blessed mates. We have been for a long time now" Larten told me.**

"**What do you mean blessed mates? What on Earth is a blessed mate?" I asked.**

"**We are married in other words Sarah. You are my wife" Larten told me.**

"**Oh so that is why we share a room. That would make sense" I replied, I felt better now I knew that my husband was with me although I had no memory of him.**

"**Here we are. This is our room Sarah" Larten said as he unlocked the door and let us in. **

"**I was carried over to the bed and I lay down on it. I was tired and confused.**

"**I take it that we both sleep here?" I asked.**

"**Yes we sleep curled up in each other's arms every day when we go to bed" Larten said.**

"**That sounds nice. I think that I need to be held right now as I am freezing" I said.**

**So Larten held me close to him and he kept me warm whilst I slept. When I woke up I felt better and I some of my memories back but not all of them. At least I remembered who and where I was but I had to be reintroduced to everybody and reminded of whom they were.**

"**I like it when we curl up together Larten. Are you sure that we are husband and wife?" I asked.**

"**Of course we are. You can ask anybody for everybody here watched us take our vows of marriage" Larten replied.**

"**As long as I know I had to be sure" I replied.**

"**Look at your rings if you want to" Larten said.**

**I looked down and saw the rings on my finger and then I noticed the bracelet on my wrist.**

"**I see that I have nice rings, they are so pretty" I commented.**

"**I picked them out as they were the best that I could find for you. Our rings match" Larten said as I saw his ring was the same as mine but much bigger. **

"**What does a girl have to do to get a meal around here?" I asked.**

"**Follow me to the main hall where the food is" Larten said so I took his hand and followed him to the main hall for food and drink. **

"**Here you are, take whatever you want and feast" Larten said as I grabbed a bowl and filled it up with what must have been stew or casserole of some kind.**

**I tucked in and I soon felt better. I ate loads and I drunk a fair bit too. **

"**Sarah do you want some blood?" Larten asked me as he poured out a glassful for himself.**

"**Yuk that is gross. Why do you drink that? It will make you sick" I said.**

"**We are vampires Sarah, blood is vital to our survival we must drink it or we die" Larten replied. **

"**Are we really vampires?" I asked.**

"**Yes we are. Look at your fingertips" Larten said.**

**I looked at my fingertips and I noticed the scars running across them.**

"**Those scars are from where I blooded you. Every clan member is a vampire" Larten said.**

"**I think that I remember now. Yes I remember when I left England with you and travelled with that circus as your assistant" I replied.**

"**That is correct. We are members of the Cirque Du Freak and we put on an act with a spider whilst you do some kind of acrobatics" Larten explained.**

"**Why are we here?" I asked.**

"**You passed the Trials of Death and you were going to put on a Bars tournament but this injury has caused no end of trouble for you as you could not remember anything" Larten explained.**

"**At least I remember you Larten if nothing else" I said smiling.**

"**That was a relief for me. If you had forgotten who I was it would have been devastating as I love you so much" Larten replied before he kissed me in front of a whole load of other people.**

**Kissing me helped me to remember a few more things and it was pretty fun as well. I was a little embarrassed about the public kissing but I guess that it was acceptable as we were in a relationship. **

**I entered the Halls of Sport and I saw the Bars but I had quite forgotten what they were for so I asked.**

"**Hey what is that contraption?"**

"**Those are the Bars Sarah. Do not tell me that you do not remember duelling upon the Bars and winning" Larten said.**

"**I have a vague memory of it but it is all blurred. It is like I know what to do but I cannot quite remember how to do it" I replied.**

"**Well you will have to remember at some point, if you duelled it may jog your memory" Larten explained.**

"**Is that a challenge?" I asked with a determined look in my eyes.**

"**Yes it is. I challenge you to a duel upon the Bars. Do you accept my challenge?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes I accept but only to help me remember what I have forgotten" I replied.**

**So I stepped upon the Bars with my staff (at least I thought it was my staff as it had my name on it) I could not remember what to do or how to start but Larten helped me to remember and soon my memory of duelling had come back and I remembered how good I was and how fun it was. I looked up and saw my name carved into the rock next to another name. **

"**Who is Arra?" I asked as I was practicing my strikes. **

"**Arra was a friend of yours who died in battle. You duelled her and it was a draw. I was also a very good friend of Arra's" Larten explained.**

"**How long ago did Arra die?" I asked.**

"**Six years, one hundred and four days, five hours, twenty minutes, and forty two seconds ago" Larten replied.**

"**That is very precise Larten. It is almost as if you have been counting down the nights until you die or something. Is it that you loved her and you miss her so much that you remember the exact moment that Arra left you?" I asked intrigued.**

"**You really do not remember anything do you Sarah? I loved Arra more than anything in this life and when she left this world I was inconsolable but I have you and I promised Arra that I would be good to you and that nothing would ever harm you" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right well that makes sense and anyway I think that I am beginning to remember now" I said.**

"**That is good. What do you remember?" Larten asked me.**

"**I remember ice dancing and I remember working at the Cirque Du Freak and I think that I remember duelling" I explained.**

"**That is an improvement but you should take it easy for a few nights until you can remember everything" Larten said.**

"**I agree as many of my memories are all hazy and confusing. Did I really live in a sewer?" I asked puzzled.**

"**Yes you lived in a sewer for many weeks before I rescued you, then you went undercover and you killed every vampaneze who was living by poisoning them all" Larten explained.**

"**Did I really do that?" I asked.**

"**Yes and the clan hailed you as a very brave and very smart vampiress to think of and pull off such a cunning plan" Larten explained.**

"**I remember somebody called George and somebody called Steve Leopard, they were evil if I remember rightly but they seemed to be nice to me" I told Larten. **

"**They were the two vampaneze leaders. You joined George's troupe and then you pretended to mate with Steve Leopard so that he would trust you and then when you had his and the troupe's trust you killed them all without fail" Larten explained.**

"**I remember a huge rat who was named Aeris and I remember sleeping in the sewers and the only thing that I had to remind me of you was your cloak" I replied.**

"**I gave it to you so that you would not miss me as much because we missed each other terribly and although we did see each other it was hard to arrange. One night I flitted for three hours straight so that I could see you for a brief time before you had to return to the sewers" Larten said.**

"**I remember now. You were with somebody else and he distracted me whilst you arrived" I said.**

"**That is right. Now do you remember who you are and how important you are to us?" Larten asked.**

"**Of course I remember now. How could I forget everything? My head feels better but it needs healing up some more" I said.**

"**Oh alright come with me Sarah" Larten said and I followed him to our quarters.**

"**I will try and heal this wound up for you. Keep still whilst I try" Larten said as I stood up and still. Larten pulled the bandage off and he removed the patch that had covered the wound to help it heal. Larten washed it out with warm water and it was not that bad, it was bruised but the actual wound was not that big once all of the dried blood had been washed away. Larten used his spit to heal the wound. It healed quite quickly but the bruise was still there. **

"**There that is better" Larten said.**

"**Thank you" I said as I admired my new scar in the mirror. It was just another mark that had a story behind it. **

"**I have been injured so many times. I have lots of scars all over my body and I will have to wear clothing that covers them up as some of them are quite large" I said.**

"**If that is your wish but I do not mind them. You have seen my many scars and the one on my face is the most famous as you know" Larten said.**

"**The scar on your face is what people associate you with the most followed by the scars on your back and chest from battle and from when you were marked by your prior mates" I replied. **

"**Yes but the battle scars show my skills as a fighter and the other scars remind me of my youth when I was less than a gentleman" Larten said, he coughed as he did so. **

"**I know all about your youth Larten. I can name everybody that you have ever been with and that is not counting all of the one night stands" I said.**

"**I cannot even remember most of the ladies that I slept with but a few stick in my mind for different reasons. I remember this one lady who loved me deeply but I was not interested in her. To prove her love for me she jumped in front of a steam train, she would have been killed but I saved her just in time and she said that by saving her I had proved that I cared or I would have let her die" Larten said.**

"**Go on tell me more" I said.**

"**Well after the steam train incident this young lady was in shock at how I had saved her as she did not know about me being a vampire. I told her that I was a magician with certain powers. Anyway after I saved this girl she led me to her place where she stayed and it was a tip. **

**The roof had come down and most of the walls were cracked but she liked it there. The only thing that this lady owned was a cat and a small mattress that she slept on. This lady begged me to stay with her and she pleaded with me to give her a better life than what she had already had so I reluctantly agreed. **

**I felt sorry for her as she was living in squalor and I knew that I had the power to rescue her so I did. I gave in to her against my better judgement and I blooded her. She screamed out as it hurt her so badly but she managed to cope with it and then we travelled together for a while. **

**I knew that this lady loved me but I did not feel the same so I tried to tell her but she would have none of it and we fought like bat and moth as a result. Eventually I let her have her wish and it turned out to be one of the best nights that I have ever had. **

**It taught me not to judge somebody on looks alone. This lady was killed in a battle with vampaneze who had tracked us to our home, we fought but there were too many of them and she was killed. I killed as many as I could before I flitted and escaped their poisoned blades. The lady in this tale was named Helena and although she was young she had been born partially blind and her face was scarred from smallpox" Larten finished.**

"**Well that was a story and a half Larten. I can see that you do not mind my scars because you love who I am and not what I look like" I replied. **

"**That is true. Without you I would be lost and if you had not have helped me I never would have got over Arra's passing and I would probably be dead or worse" Larten explained.**

"**I see. It is just as well that I am here then although we do not always get along and we fight but no more than anybody else" I said.**

"**We fight rarely and it is always over stupid things that are normally inconsequential but if we believe in it then we tend to try and get it that way no matter what it takes" Larten explained.**

"**Well take our quarters for example when we were decorating you wanted all of your weapons and trophies on display but I wanted to put my pictures up instead and we fought for ages until we came up with a compromise that allowed us to both get what we wanted and the same went for the wall colours but we worked it out in the end" I said.**

"**Yes we did work it out eventually but we should not have fought in the first place as it was such a petty thing but now you would never tell" Larten replied. **

"**That is why I love you so much. You nearly always give in to me and when you put your foot down it normally works out for the best. I respect your decisions but they are not always right and if I think that you have made a mistake then I will be the first to tell you" I explained.**

"**I know, I have to put up with you finding fault with lots of things but if you did not spot it then we could have ended up in trouble so I am grateful but I do not always know how to show it" Larten admitted.**

"**Anyway I am shattered. It is time to turn in before I start organising that Bars tournament tomorrow" I said.**

"**We have a good hour before sunrise so if you want to go out before the sun comes up feel free. In fact we could both go out and have some fun as it were" Larten said.**

"**What are you suggesting?" I asked nervously.**

"**Going out and watching the sunrise from the top of the mountain. You get a spectacular view up there before the sun gets too strong" Larten suggested.**

"**That would be nice Larten as it has been a long time since I heard the dawn chorus and watched the sunrise. The colours will be so much more intense with our enhanced vision and I want to see what the mountain looks like in the light as I have only seen it at night" I said.**

"**Alright then grab your coat and we will go. It is a fair walk to the top of the mountain as we are only about three quarters of the way up" Larten explained as we used our super speed to go to the main entrance in seconds.**

"**Where are you going?" One of the guards asked us.**

"**Up to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise and listen to the dawn chorus" I said.**

"**Try not to get too badly burned up there as the sun is very strong on the top of the mountain that is why we are where we are" The guard said.**

"**Thank you but we will be OK will we not Larten?" I asked.**

"**We will be fine and we will be back in the mountain before the sun gets too high in the sky" Larten said.**

"**Alright then go on ahead and enjoy it" The guard said.**

**So we left the halls and we headed straight up to the top of the mountain. The path was quite steep and slippery with ice but it was a good climb and it would get you fit if you climbed up to the top every day. **

"**Come on slow coach" I called out to Larten who was a few feet behind me.**

"**It appears that I am not as young as I used to be but I will show you how much strength is in this body" Larten said as he rushed me, scooped me up and flitted to the top just in time to see the sun light peer through the clouds and the evening's stars disappear but a planet or two was still visible. **

"**Wow what a view. I had never realised how high this mountain actually is. The light is glorious and it is a shame that we cannot be out in it for too long" I said.**

"**It is a good view from up here. That is why many vampires ask that their ashes are scattered up here so that they may be in the sun once more before they go on to Paradise" Larten explained.**

"**That would make sense. I like it up here the view is amazing" I said as I looked around at the valleys and fields down below. We had a lot of woodland also and it felt good to step out into the sun even if it was not for too long. I had sun glasses on but I could still see all of the colours and I could not remember when I had last seen a view like this. **

"**I took Arra up here once and as she had such pale skin she burned really quickly but you seem OK. Arra made me swear that she and I would never go out in the sun again as she hated being burned so badly. I did however scatter Arra's ashes up here well some of them anyway as I kept some and Darryl had some that he put into the woods I believe and the rest we kept as Arra had said that we could keep some of her if we wanted to" Larten said. **

"**Oh right that was nice of her, is that why you keep that pot on the bedside desk? I never looked in it before I assumed it was some kind of jewellery or something that you did not want me to see or you would have already shown me" I asked.**

"**The pot which you refer to is what Arra's ashes are in and I never showed you in case you did not want Arra in our room next to our bed" Larten explained.**

"**That is so like you. You worry so much about my feelings that you put yours aside. Of course I do not mind because that is what Arra said that you could do and anyway why would I mind? I miss Arra as much as you do and I wish that I could have got to know her better. We had better go in now as it is getting really bright now" I said.**

"**I am glad that you think like that" Larten said.**

"**I feel better now that I know that Arra is closer to me than what I thought she was" I said. **

"**I am sorry that I did not tell you sooner Sarah. I did not wish to upset you after everything that you have gone through so far this year not with your Trials and everything" Larten replied. **

"**That is fair enough Larten I can understand that. You really do care about me and for that I will be forever grateful" I said.**

"**Of course I bloody care about you Sarah. I am just as in love with you now as what I was when we met for the first time. I saw you and thought that you were absolutely stunning. I was allured by your tiny frame and your eyes, I knew that you were the one and I was determined to make you mine forever" Larten said. **

"**Well you stole my heart and when you took my innocence on the train it was the most painful but exciting experience that I had ever experienced apart from when you blooded me and when I gave birth" I said and then I continued to say;**

"**I am so happy that it was you and not anybody else who took my innocence. I mean just look at where I am now and it is all because of you Larten. I am just as in love with you as what you are with me" **

**Larten coughed and then we heard a knock on our door. I answered it and it was Vanez.**

"**Hi Vanez it is a bit late for you to be awake is it not?" I asked.**

"**Yes but I wanted to discuss this tournament with you. I am so excited about refereeing a major tournament. I will enter the tournament too and when I fight Seba will referee and if we face each other then one of the Princes will referee the match" Vanez said. **

"**That is fine by me Vanez but I am shattered. I need my sleep so that I can plan this tournament because I want it to be good and I have decided that we will be duelling for the Arra Sails Memorial Trophy as well as two other trophies" I explained. **

"**That is a great idea. Do you want a cup to be the trophy?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I thought about having a men's tournament for a cup, a ladies tournament for a tiara and a mixed tournament for the memorial cup" I suggested.**

"**That would work but we only have twelve vampiresses and so many more males. The ladies matches will be over way sooner than the men's matches" Vanez explained.**

"**That is why we are having a mixed tournament. The best males and the best females will face each other in a final duel at the end when the other tournaments are over. I will do a runner up cup for the runners up of all three tournaments. It will get easier when the challenge board is up" I replied. **

"**Oh right I will let you sort it out as you seem to know what you are doing" Vanez said as he left.**

**Chapter 23 The Bars Tournament**

**The news of the tournament leaked out and it spread like wild fire. Suddenly the Halls of Sport was overrun by vampires who were queuing to get on the Bars and train. Not every vampire would be taking part, only those who got through the heats would take part in the actual tournament. **

**It was the only way that we could do it because there had been an influx of newbies and they had increased our numbers so that we had a lot more vampires in the mountain than what there had been when I came up with the idea of the tournament. **

**It was going to take a lot of organising and the fact that I had to get a tiara and six trophies made was going to keep me occupied. They all had to be engraved and ordered in advance so that they were ready to hand out on the presentation night. **

**I needed three large cups and three smaller cups that would be engraved with the winning vampire's name and the tiara had to have a message on it also that said something like;**

"**Ladies Bars Tournament Champion 2011-2012" followed by their name. The cups would say something similar except the big memorial trophy had to have something special written on it like;**

"**This memorial cup is given to…in memory of Arra Sails as a reward for being the 2011-2012 Bars Champion" I think that would suffice but it had to be organised and it was not cheap either.**

"**How are the preparations coming on Sarah?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I have organised the order of the heats. We start tomorrow evening with the first match. All of the names were picked out at random and your first match is against my beloved Larten. The board is up with all of the challengers on it so if you win you will face the winner of the third match between Seba and Prince Vancha and so on until we get down to the actual tournament matches" I explained. **

"**That sounds simple enough. If I win I am in the tournament and if I lose I am out" Vanez said.**

"**Basically yes that is how it works and then the same random draws will be done again to decide who duels who in the actual cup matches like football" I finished.**

"**Alright then I will look forward to my first match and I will not make it easy for Larten you understand?" Vanez said.**

"**Larten will slaughter you anyway so you can go back to your refereeing duties soon enough" I replied with a grin.**

"**Well we will see about that" Vanez said as he left to referee a training match.**

**I had picked Amira as my first duel. Amira was Gavnur's mate and although she was a lovely woman she was not one for fighting. Gavnur had been giving her some training but Amira was not a Bars duellist. Amira's skills were in the medical wing and on the battle field but the Bars was an alien environment to her although she tried hard to get it right. **

**The time for the first duel came and it was Larten against Vanez and then it was me against Amira then it was Prince Darren against Prince Mika and Seba against Prince Vancha. I was looking forward to cheering for my mate and I was right underneath the Bars looking up shouting my head off in support for Larten just as he had been when he cheered for me in the Trials. **

"**Go on Larten. Teach Vanez why you are here" I called out.**

**Then I heard a big cheer for Vanez and the vampires put their hands up in a sort of Mexican wave but it was not quite the same. **

"**Go on Vanez you can do this. Just focus and remember to block" I heard Vanez's mate call out.**

"**Larten show no mercy and use the moves that I showed you yesterday to win cleanly" I said in response.**

"**Do not listen Vanez Sarah is bluffing. You can do this I know you can. It is time to bring Larten down a peg or two" I heard some General shout. **

"**Duellists ready?" Seba asked as he was refereeing.**

"**Ready" Vanez and Larten said in unison.**

"**Then salute and begin" Seba said.**

**Larten and Vanez knocked their staves together and then the match began. Larten was pumped and baying for blood. He always performed well when I was watching. Vanez got a couple of shots in but Larten was just too quick and he made mincemeat of Vanez with a wicked double attack that made Vanez fall off of the Bars with two broken ribs and a fractured eye socket.**

"**Well done my love. A fine victory" I said.**

"**Thank you Sarah but now it is your turn to duel against Amira. Gavnur has given her some private instruction. Amira will not be an easy target to beat but you have come through a lot worse so go for it up there and fight with honour" Larten replied. **

"**I will do what I usually do and I will win with any luck" I said.**

"**Alright then I will be right here watching you" Larten said in reply.**

"**Do not forget to cheer for me as it is your support that gets me through each duel" I explained.**

"**Sarah it is time to duel. Are you prepared?" Prince Darren asked as he was refereeing this match whilst Vanez had his wounds seen to. **

"**I am ready to duel but where is Amira?" I asked.**

"**Amira is in the loo. She is quite scared so she is dealing with her nerves" I heard Suki say from behind me.**

"**Oh right well I will wait for her and if the next couple want to duel in the meantime they can" I said.**

"**Sarah let us have a quick sparring match whilst we wait" Larten suggested.**

"**Alright that would be good entertainment for the crowd" I replied.**

**So Larten and I hopped on the Bars and we stood apart ready to duel. **

"**Ladies and gentlemen for your entertainment Larten and I will have a quick sparring match whilst we are waiting for Amira to arrive" I announced.**

**At this point the whole crowd split into two halves almost, most were on my side but a few were shouting out Larten's name in support. **

**We knocked our staves together and then the match began. It was not a proper match but it provided some entertainment for the waiting duellists.**

**I made a few good strikes and I got in a nasty combo move but Larten countered and he came back at me and I finished it off with one of my aerial strikes that sent Larten off balance before I made the final killer blow and sent Larten to the ground. **

**Larten landed on his feet and he jumped straight back onto the Bars with a single move so that he could congratulate me as that was the custom and then Amira arrived so Larten left the Bars and Amira took his place.**

"**Go for it Sarah. You can do this" I heard Larten call out.**

"**I will do my best Larten you can be assured of that" I called back.**

"**Come on everybody cheer for my blessed mate" Larten shouted out.**

"**No cheer for my mate" Gavnur said and once again the crowds split into two halves with our respective mates at the front leading the cheering. **

"**Duellists ready?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**Yes" I said.**

"**Let's do this thing" Amira said in response.**

"**Then salute and begin" Prince Darren said.**

**So the duel started and Amira came at me with a series of fast strikes that I had not been expecting. I blocked the first three and then I dodged the rest. I countered and Amira took some serious punishment for I was not about to make this duel easy for her. Amira came back and she hit me hard but I hit harder and my strikes were always on target but Amira's were a bit wobbly. **

**I flipped up and over Amira, I rounded on her and whacked her back as hard as I could, she doubled over and dropped to her knees so I finished it off with another hard whack on Amira's head. Then she fell flat on the Bars and that was it. I had won and Amira was knocked out.**

"**That was a hard hit Sarah. Amira is knocked out and I only hope that the damage is not serious" Gavnur said as he rushed forward to carry his unconscious mate to the medical wing.**

"**That is the risk that you take when you are on the Bars" I said as Larten hoisted me up and spun me around in celebration of my victory.**

"**I can see why Amira was scared to face me. I hope that she is OK Larten" I said. **

"**You knocked her out but she will be OK once her head has been seen to. You fractured her skull Sarah" Gavnur told me later on that night.**

"**I am so sorry Gavnur I did not mean for it to be that hard. I only wanted to win the duel not smash Amira's skull in" I said tearfully.**

"**You do not need to apologise you were only duelling normally and as Larten said earlier you made a clean strike and you won fairly. You did nothing wrong Sarah" Gavnur continued.**

"**Well I will of course apologise to Amira for being so hard on her. I hope that she will heal up OK" I said.**

"**Amira will be fine. She will have a mark on her head but she will recover like Seba did so now you must focus on the tournament and do not worry about your opponents" Gavnur replied. **

"**Alright I will do that. Thank you for being so lenient on me Gavnur, I thought that you would be baying for my blood in revenge but you can see that what I did was OK and it was not intended" I said. **

"**I know that Sarah you were just trying to earn your place in the tournament and you have done that. Anyway the next duel is about to start" Gavnur said so I stood back to watch the next duel between Prince Darren and Prince Mika.**

**I stood at the front as I was Darren's mentor's blessed mate and a good friend of his. I stood next to Larten and we held up the banner that we had made that said "Darren for the men's Bars Champion" with pictures of him fighting and a list of defeated opponents. **

"**Thank you for the banner it is great" Prince Darren called down to us. **

"**That is Ok. We thought that you could do with some support from us as we are your closest clan members" I replied as Prince Darren prepared to fight Prince Mika. This duel was bloody and it was vicious as neither Prince would surrender. They had to look strong in front of the Clan as they were the clan's leaders. **

"**Enough!" Prince Vancha shouted as he was refereeing the duel.**

"**Prince Darren and Prince Mika both stopped and they faced each other both bleeding and battered from the long fight. **

"**Hey why did you stop the fight?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**I stopped the fight because you are both very good. There is no point beating each other to a pulp so I have decided to put you both through" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**That is fair enough. I think that we have both earned our place in the tournament" Prince Mika said as he spat blood out of his mouth he had lost a tooth in the duel from a nasty side swipe and now he was bleeding from his mouth and gums.**

**Darren on the other hand had received a lot of punishment to his chest and back but the rest of him was OK if a bit bruised.**

"**Well done to both of you. I will see you in the next round" I said.**

"**Yes of course. We had better go and catch up with our duties now" Prince Darren said.**

"**You should be patched up first. I have some ointment that is good for bruising. I have had to use it frequently" I explained.**

"**Alright I will get patched up Sarah. I will come to your quarters later so that you can apply the ointment" Prince said.**

"**Are you OK Sire?" I asked Prince Mika.**

"**It is only a tooth. I am fine but it was a great duel and I enjoyed it" Prince Mika replied as he and Prince Darren both left to catch up on their Prince's duties. **

**After that I watched Seba's duel against Prince Vancha which I refereed. It was another long match and it was pretty brutal but I had been ordered by Prince Vancha not to stop it so I had to let it go on until with a final, heavy and accurate blow Prince Vancha finished off Seba who held his hands up in surrender before he hopped off the Bars to deal with his injuries which were quite serious but not life threatening. **

**With the first four preliminary matches out of the way it was time for the next four duels which were Suki against Raven, Kitty against Hattie, Sophia against Mari and Emma against Alison who were both new vampiresses to the clan as they had only been here for a couple of months.**

**It was fun to watch the ladies duel as they were so much more elegant and they were not as violent as the men's duels but the match against Prince Arrow and Kitty was pretty rough. **

**Kitty had not had much experience. She was very new to the Clan and she had only joined because she had a crush on a guy in her evening class who had turned out to be a vampire. **

**Kitty did her best but Prince Arrow made mincemeat of her and she fell off and landed into the arms of Larten who had caught her as she was very injured. **

**Kitty was out but Raven got through and so did Mari but the match between Emma and Alison was cancelled because neither of the two vampiresses knew what to do so I postponed the match until they could be trained up a bit to make it fair.**

**The tournament was going great and it provided some wicked entertainment for the clan. I was looking forward to the second round where I would face the winner out of Raven and Emma. The match order was confusing but it made sense on the board. We had to change it because both Prince Darren and Prince Mika had got through but that was OK. We decided that they had to face each other again in round two of the men's tournament so that one of them would go through to the quarter finals. **

**I was kept busy with the tournament and it was so much fun to watch. Eventually we got down to the second round ladies matches that were as follows; Emma against Raven, myself against Laura, and Hattie against Mari. **

**This was the ladies tournament the men's tournament was different as so too was the mixed tournament. There was a different order for both and the matches were picked out at random and if you were out of one tournament you might still be in the other one. **

**The ladies matches were so good. I knocked Laura off of the Bars without much effort. It was Laura's first duel so I did not do anything too vicious or nasty but I beat her easily by performing a double side swipe that knocked her over the edge of the Bars. **

**Then it was time for the second round men's matches which were Larten against Prince Mika, Gavnur against Prince Darren, Prince Arrow against Michael, and Peter against James. **

**Finally we got down to the mixed matches which were Larten against Emma, Mari against Prince Darren, Laura against Seba and Vanez against Suki, Cassie against Peter, Tabitha against Michael and finally Helen against Tom. **

**It was getting hard to keep track of who was in what tournament so we made a separate list of who was left in each tournament and it looked like this:**

**Men's Quarter finalists:**

**Larten,**

**Prince Darren,**

**Prince Vancha,**

**Peter,**

**Prince Arrow,**

**Tom (a new member of the clan)**

**Ladies Quarter finalists:**

**Sarah (Tournament Organiser)**

**Hattie,**

**Raven,**

**Tabitha,**

**Helen,**

**Cassie**

**Mixed Quarter finalists:**

**Larten,**

**Prince Darren,**

**Seba,**

**Suki,**

**Tabitha,**

**Peter,**

**Helen,**

**Vanez**

**And that was it. Many vampires had retired due to injury and the rest had too much to do as it was not easy running a mountain. **

**It was a lot simpler now that we had got down the quarter finals. There were so many less vampires the charts were way easier to understand than what they had been. **

**The men would have their quarter finals first and the matches were as follows:**

**Larten VS Peter**

**Prince Darren VS Tom**

**Prince Vancha VS Prince Arrow**

**And then the ladies matches were:**

**Myself VS Raven,**

**Hattie VS Helen,**

**Cassie VS Tabitha**

**And finally the mixed matches were as follows:**

**Larten VS Suki,**

**Helen VS Seba,**

**Prince Darren VS Vanez,**

**Tabitha VS Peter**

**The winners of these matches would enter the semi-finals and then the finals would be against the last few standing. It was scary to think that I actually had a chance of winning and so did Larten and it was nice to have so many new vampires that got through as it would have been boring to have too many of our oldest clan members who were left in the tournament. All I knew was that the quarter finals would be great. **

**I was looking forward to watching Larten's matches and as for my own match it was going to be exciting. I had a feeling that I was going to win but it was not guaranteed. **

**Larten had survived and he had got through some of the toughest duels, he had made mincemeat out of many Generals who had not been beaten for a while. **

**It was so good to hold this kind of tournament and the trophies had finally arrived and they were on display ready for the presentation night when the winners would claim their prizes. **

**The next matches were about to take place so I took my position at the front of the Bars in the brand new duellist's box that had been built. It was a separate area that had seats in it and the duellists could watch from it and wait inside it until it was their turn to duel. The ladies matches were first and that meant that it was my time to duel Raven for a place in the semi-finals.**

**I hopped onto the Bars with my brand new staff as my other one had snapped in a previous duel. My new staff had been made for me to specific specifications as it was measured in balance with my body and it had very little weight.**

**I had a talk with Larten before my duel as neither of us had spent much if any time together as I had been so busy organising the duel lists and Larten had some other duties to attend to so it was nice to finally have a conversation.**

"**Finally we can talk, it has been ages since we last had a proper chat" I said.**

"**Yes you have really taken this duel tournament seriously and that is great but it has kind of separated us as neither of us has spoken much to one another unless it was about a duel related matter" Larten said. **

"**I know. It is my fault for not getting anybody to help me. I have organised and ran the whole thing myself so I have put you to the back of my mind whilst I have been busy organising this thing. I am sorry" I replied.**

"**It is quite alright. I am proud of you for doing so much and doing so well yourself. We are both in to the next round and although it may been seen as annoying by some vampires if we both win we can put our trophies up on the shelf above our bed in our quarters. Of course you can always wear the tiara if you want to just to remind people of your win" Larten said.**

"**Would that not be boastful? To rub it in like that?" I asked.**

"**Maybe but if you win a tournament then you are entitled to show off your prize" Larten replied.**

"**Fair enough" I said.**

"**We have to win first though" Larten reminded me.**

"**I know, I am not being complacent. I know what is at stake here" I said.**

"**As long as you are aware of that fact it is OK. Anyway we had better make the most of this time as we are the only ones in here and we may not be alone again for a while yet" Larten said.**

"**What did you have in mind my love?" I asked grinning.**

"**We could some fun like we used to do in here. Do you remember that night when we broke in and made full use of the wrestling ring?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes I do and you made such a mess in here and rather a lot of noise if I remember rightly" I commented.**

"**It was a good time though was it not? You enjoyed it as much as I did so why complain?" Larten asked.**

"**I enjoyed it and I am not complaining I just do not want to get balled out by Vanez again as he was furious last time" I said.**

"**That was before we were blessed mates and anyway Vanez has done it himself with his mate. He is such a hypocrite" Larten said.**

"**Oh well if you put it like that then alright. I am up for it anyway as I have been for a while now but I have not had the time to ask you to fix it for me" I replied as I stripped off my duellists clothes and lay down inside the wrestling ring. I would not surrender easily but it would be fun to have a wrestling match and then mate afterwards. **

**As I had not been in the ring since I had taken my second Trial I had to honour Darryl as he had died in the ring. I did this by saying a vampire's prayer and then I asked Darryl to forgive me for my actions on that fateful night. With that out of the way I was ready to wrestle Larten and that would lead to us mating in the ring or so I thought. **

**Larten did not make it easy for me, we fought quite roughly with each other for half an hour or so before I eventually let Larten have his way with me. It was pretty good too and I enjoyed it. Then we jumped up on to the swinging ropes and Larten joined me. We swung around on the ropes and used them to support our weight whilst we did some kind of balancing act that involved us mating on them too. **

**It was going pretty well and had been enjoying it so much but I knew better than to scream. I had been working on controlling my noise levels and it was working. We were so into our session that we did not hear anybody coming so when a load of drunken Generals walked in and saw us doing what we were doing it was a rather awkward situation and to top it off Seba was with them as he had been celebrating his friend's birthday, he was as drunk as the rest but not even he wanted to see his ex-assistant in the act of mateship. **

"**Larten what the hell are you doing?" Seba said angrily and it was at this point that we realised that we had an audience.**

"**We were just spending some quality time together" Larten said when we had untangled ourselves.**

"**I can see that. Have you seen this place Larten? It is filthy. You have got your fluids everywhere you need to learn to control yourself" Seba said even more angrily.**

"**I am sorry Seba but you are no longer my mentor and there is no law that says what we have done is wrong" Larten said.**

"**As for you Sarah I am shocked that you would go along with such an act" Seba chastised me.**

"**I cannot see what the problem was. If I choose to mate with my blessed mate in here that is my decision and no one else's. We have permission" I explained **

"**Oh do you? Who has given you permission?" Seba asked.**

"**We asked Prince Mika and he said it was fine as long as we cleared up afterwards" I continued.**

"**Well that is different. I am too drunk to care but it was not a pleasant thing to walk in on Larten. Next time put a sign on the door or something" Seba said.**

"**We were nearly finished anyway when you disrupted us. We were trying out a few new positions to liven up our mateship" Larten said.**

"**Well we will leave you to clean up this mess. The ring is the worst there is blood as well as other stuff. You were pretty rough to cause this damage" Seba said as he saw the broken wrestling ring fence and the rope that was on the floor. **

"**I will fix it Seba" Larten said as Seba left us alone to clean up our mess (but not before we finished our interrupted session!)**

"**Where were we?" I asked.**

"**On that rope and you were rocking me. I nearly came too before we were walked in on" Larten said as he got back on the rope.**

**I climbed back onto the rope and I finished of what I was doing to Larten before we got dressed and cleaned up our mess. Meanwhile back in the main hall Seba was chatting to Vanez.**

"**Hey Seba are you up for a match in the Halls of Sport?" Vanez asked.**

"**There are two problems with that though I would like to have a match with you. One I am drunk and that would be an unfair advantage and I have just come from the Halls of Sport and trust me when I say do not go in there" Seba said.**

"**Can you tell me why Seba?" Vanez asked. **

"**Because I just came from there and it is a mess in there. Larten and Sarah were in there alone and well I walked in on their session" Seba said.**

"**You mean that they were in there mating?" Vanez asked.**

"**Yes they used the wrestling ring and broke it and then they went on those ropes and used those to have some more fun" Seba explained.**

"**I see. I guess a match is out of the question until the equipment has been washed down and mended" Vanez said.**

"**Yes unless you want to watch two blessed mates at it like a pair of wild animals. They were quite rough with each other too. There is a fair amount of blood in there" Seba said. **

"**Oh well I had better not go in there then but as usual I will be left to clean up the aftermath of their fun. Who would want to be the Games Master eh?" Vanez asked himself.**

**Meanwhile back in the Halls of Sport I was enjoying finishing what I had started and how I had missed Larten and his skills. My whole body was in overdrive and I was having such a good time that I forgot everything and I focussed on rewarding Larten because he had been so good to me and this particular session was so much fun. **

**Larten wanted to finish off and clean up but I begged for more and eventually he gave in to my demands for more fun.**

"**Maybe we should finish here and retire to our quarters" Larten said.**

"**Why should we? I love it here with all of the equipment" I said in reply.**

"**We must clean up though. Have you seen it in here? I went overboard with my thrusts I think" Larten said.**

"**That was only because I got you so hot first with my routine on the ropes" I replied.**

"**Yes but even so I should have controlled it more however it was worth it. That was a good session for both of us" Larten replied as he cleaned up as much as he could.**

"**I agree. We both needed that but now I want to feed badly. I am so thirsty and tired I have no energy left" I said.**

"**We can feed in a minute if you want to. We must clean up though as it is common courtesy" Larten said sternly.**

"**Alright I will help you but I am very sore. I doubt that I could cope with another session" I replied as I grabbed a cloth and started cleaning too. **

**Soon enough the Halls of Sport were cleaned up and if not for the broken equipment and the smell you would not have known that two blessed mates had mated in there.**

**I returned to our quarters when I had finished cleaning and I grabbed my wash bag as I was desperate for a shower. I was covered in blood and other stuff and I needed to get it off of my clothes before it stained. **

**The blood had come from both of us when we had been wrestling in the ring. We had scratched and bitten each other whilst we were fighting as it was a part of it. I had scratches on my back and I had a gash on my head from where I had been slammed onto the ground hard but apart from that I was OK. I was very tingly still and I had butterflies in my stomach as an after effect of having Larten inside me. **

**I took my clothes off and I jumped under the waterfall that acted as a shower and I let the freezing cold water run over my body before I washed it with a flannel and some shower gel that I had taken from a hotel that I had stayed at. **

**I washed quickly under the icy water and I dried myself off. I was clean but I was cold and I had to sit by a fire to get warm again as it was damn cold under that waterfall. **

**I was by the fireplace when I had a few vampires come over to me and they were not that happy with me. **

"**What seems to be the problem?" I asked.**

"**It is your group's turn to hunt and you have not been yet. We are all hungry" one General said. **

"**I apologise. I forgot that it was my turn. I thought that it was Seba's turn. I will go now if you like and I will bring back something special" I said as I got up out of the armchair and stretched myself.**

"**That is fine if it was a genuine error but if you could go now as we all need a good meal" The General said in response.**

**I left immediately and prepared to go hunting. My team was already waiting for me so we left in a hurry to start raiding the woods for our clan's dinner.**

**I lead the gang of hunters. We split up into two groups, one group had the pack of wolves following them and I took the other group up into the trees with my hawks. We were raiding for eggs, nestlings and tree dwelling creatures like birds and squirrels. **

**The ground group were after deer, rabbits, water fowl, boar and anything that the wolves caught. We needed to take down a large amount of quarry as there were lots of vampires to feed, a large deer would feed maybe fifteen people and a wild boar would feed a fair few too but water fowl like ducks would feed two people only as vampires have big appetites and they eat tonnes of meat. **

**We went back to the mountain with a good selection of food. We had done well and the Clan would have a decent meal thanks to me. I brought back two large stags, a few rabbits, two braces of pheasants, a partridge, a brace of ducks, four wild boars and a fox for the hawks. **

**I staggered into the kitchen carrying the stag on my shoulders and it was huge. I could lift it but it was awkward to carry. **

"**You have had a good hunt Sarah. We have more than enough to feed the clan here but what will we give to the Princes?" The head cook asked.**

"**Well there are only three Princes as Mika is on business so they can have the fowl and I will have the partridge for myself and Larten to share as my hunter's prize" I suggested. **

"**Yes that would work Sarah. Are you going to help me prepare the food?" The head cook asked**

"**I can do but I am needed elsewhere tonight as I have duties" I explained.**

"**Oh right I can manage. Can you send Kitty down here? She can help me out" The head cook asked.**

"**Of course I can" I replied and after washing blood and feathers off of my hands I left the kitchen to find Kitty. **

**I found Kitty in the Halls of Sport having a training session ready for her next duel in the Tournament. "Kitty the head cook wants you in the kitchen tonight to pluck and prepare the meals" I said.**

"**Oh alright Sarah I'm on my way but I have not cooked before" Kitty said.**

"**Have you plucked and prepared meat before?" I asked.**

"**Not for a long time but I know what to do. I will ask Samantha to help out as well as she is bored apparently" Kitty explained.**

"**That is a good plan. Thank you for helping out on such short notice. I would do it myself but I have duties tonight" I replied.**

**I left the Halls of Sport to find Larten as we did our duties together normally as we were blessed mates. I found Larten in the hall where food was served fixing a table that had a broken leg on it. Our duties tonight were to fix a few things. I had to dust a few things and clean out the empty quarters where their occupants had moved on. It did not take long but it was boring dusting and polishing furniture. I also had to clean out the fireplaces and the chimneys needed sweeping too. **

**I was kept busy most of the time but it had to be done because everybody had to pitch in. I was used to helping out at the Cirque Du Freak so it was no different helping out here. **

**Mr Tall never worked me hard but what I did was vital to the Cirque Du Freak's continuing success. **

**Cleaning out the chimneys was horrible as I got covered in soot and dust which made me cough and smell bad but it had to be done. I wore rough clothes and gloves to do it and Larten helped me out anyway so it was not so bad. It could not be done alone as it would take too long even with super speed as there were so many fireplaces in the mountain. **

**After I had finished with the chimneys I moved on to dusting and polishing the tables in the food hall, they all needed wiping down anyway as they were stained. We tried to keep the mountain clean after our huge clean up and decorating challenge as it was pointless to decorate the place if it was left to get all dusty and filthy again. **

**Eventually I finished my duties and I joined the clan for dinner. I had roasted my partridge and I ate most of it as it was tiny. It was barely enough for me let alone Larten as well so we ate some of the wild boar as well that had been spit roasted and basted in cider as it had a rather strong flavour to it but it was nice. **

**After the clan had eaten the spare food was packed into ice and salt and preserved for a later date. I was called to the Prince's Dome after dinner and as I had not been expecting it I was a bit scared.**

"**I have been called to see the Princes" I said to the guard on duty**

"**Who are you?" The guard asked.**

"**I am Sarah Crepsley, Larten Crepsley's blessed mate" I explained.**

"**Oh yes I was expecting you. Go on through" The guard said and he let me pass into the Prince's Dome.**

"**Sarah there you are. What took you so long?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Sorry I was feasting and then I had to clean up afterwards as it is on my duty roster" I explained.**

"**Oh right OK. We have summoned you here to ask you why we did not get much food tonight" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**I did not catch much as the woods are quite empty this time of year. I gave you the best of what we had" I said.**

"**It was not enough for us. You know that we get first pick of the hunt" Prince Darren cut in.**

"**I am sorry. I did not get much either. I had one partridge to share with Larten that was tiny and we had some wild boar that is all" I explained.**

"**Oh right. You should have had more than that as you were the hunt leader. I can see why we got what we got now. You gave what should have been yours to us as that was your duty" Prince Darren said.**

"**Yes I did, I was going to give you one of the boars but the head cook said no as then there would not have been enough for the rest of the clan" I explained.**

"**That is fine Sarah. The next time we eat you and Larten may eat with us as your reward for working so hard and being so selfless when it came to tonight's food shortage" Prince Vancha said.**

"**Thank you very much Sire. I will enjoy dining with you and Larten will be impressed I am sure" I replied as I bowed and left the Prince's Dome.**

**When I went back into the main halls I found Larten chatting to Seba about some trip that he had been on.**

"**Hello Larten, hi Seba" I said.**

"**Hello Sarah, are you OK?" Larten asked.**

"**I am fine thank you my dear. You will never guess what the Princes have done" I said excitedly.**

"**What have they done?" Larten asked.**

"**Because we gave up our rightful food for them tonight they have invited me and you to dine with them at their High Table for dinner" I explained.**

"**That is truly an honour Larten" Seba said.**

"**Indeed it is. I must get my best robes cleaned then and you will need a new dress" Larten said decisively.**

"**I have lots of new clothes Larten. I am sure that I have something suitable for such an auspicious occasion" I replied.**

"**Well that is alright then. I am so proud of you giving up your hunter's rights for the Princes and look at how we have been repaid" Larten said proudly. **

"**I know I was rather surprised because the Princes sounded stern when I went into the Dome. They asked me why they had so little food and when I explained the situation and how I had less than them they decided to invite us to dine with them. It will be fun and we will have a laugh" I explained.**

"**Yes but do not forget your place Sarah. This is a great honour and we will act as such even if we do get a bit drunk on their best ale" Larten replied as he tried to hide his feelings. I could tell how pleased he was but he tried to keep his usual straight face. **

**I was quite excited about the prospect of dining with the Princes but it was going to be stressful as I had to choose what to wear and I had to try and not be too boastful but I could not help but tell my friends in the hunt party. **

"**You're having me on Sarah. Are you really telling me that you and Larten will be dining at the Prince's High Table? That can't be true" Kitty said when I told her. **

"**It is true Kitty. You will see it for yourself later on" I said.**

"**Alright then this should be interesting to watch" Kitty said. I could tell how jealous she was but I had earned my place fair and square. **

"**Sarah, are you really going to be dining with the Princes tonight?" Vanez asked me when he heard about it.**

"**Yes Vanez they invited me and Larten personally in return for me giving up my hunter's rights so that they got more food than me when we were short of it" I explained for the fifth time that night.**

"**That is so cool. Can you throw me the scraps?" Vanez laughed.**

"**I would but there will not be any scraps and it is bad manners to throw food Vanez" I replied sternly but then I smiled to show that I got the joke.**

"**Sarah it is time to get ready" I heard Larten say to me.**

"**Can you stop doing that? I do not like it when you appear out of nowhere and make me jump like that" I said.**

"**Sorry dear but we must go and prepare ourselves. What will you be wearing?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am wearing my satin gown that you gave me for my birthday. It is the one with the crystals on it and the high collar" I said simply.**

"**That would be acceptable. I am wearing my best robes and that high collared cape that I wore for our blessed mateship" Larten said.**

"**We will look like royals Larten. I hope that the Princes have clothing that is as fine or we will look better than them and that is not right" I said.**

"**Well we are guests so we are entitled to look our best" Larten said as we got changed.**

"**Can you help me with this? It is hard to do up" I asked Larten.**

"**Here let me do it" Larten said as he laced up my corset and helped me look my best. **

"**Thank you. I look stunning now" I commented.**

"**Yes but you do not look as good as me Sarah" Larten replied.**

"**I do not think so my love. Anyway we had better go now" I said. **

"**Yes we had better go. This will be a good time for all of us" Larten said as we left to go down to the main hall. **

**Normally we would enter by the main entrance but tonight we entered via the Prince's Dome entrance as it was connected and we walked up to the High Table. **

**We took our seats and then we looked down at the Clan who were all staring up at us like we were celebrities or something. I loved it and from up here you really could look down upon everybody. **

"**Let's eat" Prince Vancha said and we tucked into our feast. We had everything that you could want and it was cooked to perfection. I stuffed my face with venison and woodcock then I had a hot berry tart and a lot of fine wines, spirits and fresh blood that was still warm. **

"**How is it?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**It is the best meal I have had since my blessed mateship feast" I replied.**

"**I am glad to hear that Sarah. How are you anyway" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I am very well thank you Sire. This wine is good" I replied.**

"**Please call me Vancha as you are my equal tonight and that goes for us all" Prince Vancha said.**

"**OK then I will do. Mika can you pass me the pheasant?" I asked. **

"**Of course I can. You really are hungry if you can eat as much as what you have eaten" Prince Mika said.**

"**I am starving. I have not eaten for three days in preparation for tonight's feast" I replied as I stuffed pheasant breast into my mouth and ate a couple of chicken legs too. **

**I had a lot of wine and I did get a bit messy but Larten had drunk a lot more than me. He was on the strong, dark ale and he devoured it by the barrel load. It was nice but it was way too strong for me so I stuck to wine and blood. **

"**What a meal" Prince Darren said when we were all finished.**

"**Yes it was rather good. It makes me want to become a General again" Larten said.**

"**You still could you know. We would accept you readily" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Sarah how would you like to be a Vampire Prince's blessed mate?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I have never thought about it Vancha. It must be cool though. Do I get my own throne?" I asked.**

"**You would share mine Sarah but it has its advantages" Larten replied.**

"**Are you considering it Larten?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Yes if the clan vote me in then I will seriously consider it" Larten said.**

"**We will discuss it at the next council meeting. I will put it on the agenda" Prince Darren said.**

"**That would be fine. Sarah what is your opinion of me becoming a General again?" Larten asked me.**

"**As your blessed mate I support you one hundred per cent and if it means that you get to become a Prince then go for it" I said.**

"**Can you cope with the elevation of status?" Prince Darren asked me.**

"**Of course I can. I was born to rule and besides with you and Larten helping me I cannot go wrong" I replied.**

"**You would have no official powers but you would have some privileges Sarah like sharing Larten's throne and you would dine with us every night" Prince Darren explained.**

"**Oh right well it sounds like fun to me. If you want to do it Larten then I have no objection to it and I have always wanted to know where you guys sleep. Is it as nice as they say it is in your quarters?" I asked.**

"**We have the best of everything Sarah but we have a heavy work load and we do not often get time to ourselves so it is not all plain sailing" Prince Mika explained.**

"**Oh well I can manage. Thank you for you invitation tonight. It has been a very enjoyable evening" I said.**

"**We are glad that you enjoyed it Sarah and thank you for hunting for us all" Prince Mika said as we left the High Table and retired to our quarters to sleep the day away with very full stomachs and we both felt rather drunk. **

**When we were back in our quarters we discussed the prospect of Larten actually becoming a General again.**

"**I know I said that I wanted nothing more to do with the Generals but since being here with you I feel like I am not utilising all of my potential. I will think about becoming a General again seriously but it means that I will be busy a lot of the time and we will not see each other as often as what we do now" Larten explained.**

"**Do not do it if you do not want to. I do not mind either way as I could become a General instead of you and then I could become the first Vampire Princess in my own right" I said.**

"**You cannot be a General as vampiresses are not allowed to become them but you could still become a Vampire Princess if I get voted as a Prince in my own right because then I could bestow the title upon you" Larten explained.**

"**Oh OK. We have both taken and passed the Trials of Death so that is no problem. I want you to be happy Larten so do as you wish to do and do not become a General to keep me happy as there is no need" I said.**

"**I will become a Vampire General again if there is a space for me as we have a lot of Generals at the moment" Larten explained.**

"**When is the next vote?" I asked.**

"**Not for a while because of Kurda's treachery the security has been increased tenfold but as there are no vampaneze now it may be brought forward" Larten explained.**

"**That is OK then. You have my vote anyway regardless of any other factor" I said.**

"**Thank you for that but you are not allowed to vote as you are my blessed mate but if I become a Vampire Prince I will try and get that rule changed" Larten said.**

"**Can you imagine it Larten? Prince Larten and Princess Sarah of the Vampire Clan is who we would be. It has a nice ring to it" I said.**

"**Well yes but do not get too excited as it takes years to become a Vampire Prince and it is not easy. I have to prove myself as a General first and that is if I get voted in again" Larten explained.**

"**Alright I understand. At least I will not be snobby like some former vampiresses" I said.**

"**Well that is good to hear. Anyway I am shattered and the sun rose ages ago so we should sleep now" Larten said.**

"**Yes alright. I hope we are not hung over in the evening. I have an early start tomorrow" I replied.**

"**What are you doing then?" Larten asked.**

"**I have to take the hawks out and my horse needs a run then I have duties in the Halls of Sport before the next round of Tournament matches is held" I explained. **

"**Oh right who is duelling tomorrow?" Larten asked.**

"**I am not sure off hand. I will check the list. I think that it is you against Peter" I said.**

"**Oh right who is Peter?" Larten asked.**

"**Peter is a newly blooded vampire who is helping out here for a while as his mentor was killed. He is not to be underestimated" I said.**

"**In that case it will be a good match. When do you duel next?" Larten asked.**

"**I am duelling after your match against Raven who is Darryl's widow" I explained. **

"**Oh right. I am in the mixed tournament too and so are you I believe" Larten said.**

"**Yes you are facing Suki in the mixed tournament and I am not in it. I got knocked out but I am still in the Ladies tournament" I explained.**

"**Oh right never mind but we must sleep now. We can discuss it tomorrow" Larten said as we got into bed.**

**Larten fell asleep quickly but I had no such luck. I felt ill but I had not mentioned it as Larten worried if I was ill. I felt sick and dizzy. I put it down to too much alcohol and I tried to sleep as best as I could. **

**In the evening when I woke up I felt dreadful. I was really weak and I could not do much.**

"**Sarah you look awful. Are you OK my love?" Larten asked me when he saw me.**

"**No Larten I feel very ill and dizzy. I was like it yesterday but I did not mention it" I said.**

"**Why did you not tell me? You look really sick" Larten said.**

"**I feel really sick and weak" I said.**

"**Come with me to the medical wing straight away" Larten said.**

"**I cannot walk as I am that weak" I said.**

"**I will carry you there my love, put this on" Larten said as he handed me my cloak that was lined with fox fur. **

"**Alright, I do feel dreadful" I said.**

**Larten carried me to the medical wing and when we arrived Larten called for the medic.**

"**Sarah is ill" Larten said.**

"**Sarah, can you tell me what happened?" The medic asked.**

"**Well I felt sick and dizzy last night and now I feel worse. I dined with the Princes last night and I had a lot to drink. I think that I am hung over" I said.**

"**No Sarah you are not hung over. You have not thrown up. I hate to say this but it looks like poison" The medic said.**

"**That cannot be the case because we are all OK and why poison one person and not all of the Princes and myself?" Larten asked.**

"**It looks like somebody has a grudge against you Sarah. Can you think of anybody?" The medic asked.**

"**No everybody is so nice and I have lots of friends here" I explained.**

"**Is there anybody who is jealous of you?" The medic asked.**

"**Only Samantha but she is not at the mountain she is with Vanez on business at the moment" I explained.**

"**This poisoning has been happening slowly and only now you have enough in your system to make you sick" The medic explained.**

"**What poison has been used?" I asked anxiously.**

"**I am not sure but it looks like arsenic. If you were human you would have been killed a long time ago but the vampire blood has minimised the damage. You are lucky to be a vampiress Sarah" the medic said.**

"**Well we must report it to the Princes immediately. Is there a cure for arsenic poisoning?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes there is luckily. You have to drink liquid charcoal that is laced with garlic because that will soak up the poison and then you will get better" The medic said.**

"**OK then that is a relief. I thought that I was done for" I said.**

"**If you had any more arsenic in your system it would have been too late but you caught it in time" The medic said.**

"**Larten, can you get the Princes to come here please?" I asked.**

"**Yes of course I can. I will be back later" Larten said as he left.**

**At that point the medic handed me a goblet full of black liquid that was liquid charcoal and crushed garlic. It tasted vile but it was better than a slow, painful death. **

"**How does the garlic help?" I asked.**

"**It helps to take the arsenic out of your body and it expels it quicker so you recover, sulphur is good too but that in itself is poison so garlic is better. It is a good job that garlic does not actually affect vampires like what humans say it does" The medic laughed. **

"**Yes it is but I will have bad breath for a while" I complained.**

"**It is better than dying Sarah" the medic said.**

"**Yes I know that Medic" I agreed.**

**Just then Larten turned up with the Princes behind him. The Princes crowded around me and they were all shocked at the news. **

"**I cannot believe that anybody would want to poison you Sarah. It will be investigated thoroughly and the guilty party will be executed for attempted murder" Prince Vancha declared. **

"**Are you feeling OK Sarah?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**I am very weak Darren. Luckily the medic knew what to do to cure me and it was not too late" I said.**

"**That is lucky Sarah. I will have a guard posted at the entrance to your quarters and I will post a guard outside the medical wing too" Prince Mika decided.**

"**Thank you sire but I am not a General or a Princess so why the special treatment?" I asked.**

"**It is important to us that you are OK because you are a victim of a hideous crime and we make it our business to protect all victims of crime" Prince Mika explained.**

"**Thank you for your concern Sire. I am grateful for all of your help" I replied.**

"**You are welcome Sarah now we will leave you to rest up. I will investigate this matter personally with Larten's help" Prince Vancha said decisively. **

"**Thank you Sire Larten, can you stay with me please?" I asked **

"**Of course I can my love. I have got Kitty to do your duties for you and I will fly the hawks later after the horse has had his exercise" Larten replied.**

"**I feel safe when you are around me and that is why I want you here. I am so vulnerable at the moment and I feel very weak. The tournament can be postponed until I am well enough to run it" I replied.**

"**Larten I will get some of the Generals to begin investigating this serious matter. I will pick the most trusted Generals here and they will report to you with any developments as they occur" Prince Vancha said before he left the medical wing. **

**I stayed in the medical wing for many weeks recovering from my poisoning. I was scared to eat anything in case it was poisoned so I lost a lot of weight and I became very weak. I only ate what Larten cooked for me.**

**I was afraid of people now as I did not know who had tried to kill me and I was under guard constantly. I did not mind it but I feared that the poisoner would try again as they had failed this time. That made me fear for my life but Larten helped me out and he refused to leave my side. Larten escorted me everywhere and when he was not there my guards were. I had two guards outside my quarters and two guards as escorts as additional security. **

**I would not be happy until the truth came to light and I found out who tried to kill me by poisoning me. I went to the Prince's Dome one evening and they were questioning certain clan members. **

"**Excuse me Sires but it has been ages and we have not got anywhere so may I make a suggestion?" I asked.**

"**Of course you can. You are after all the victim in this Sarah" Prince Mika said.**

"**Maybe we should do a search of the whole mountain to find out where the arsenic has been stored and we could search the quarters to look for evidence. That may help us" I suggested.**

"**That is a good idea Sarah but it would take ages to do it" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**It will not take as long as questioning every clan member though" I replied.**

"**That is a good point. Alright Sarah we will begin searching quarters for any incrimination evidence" Prince Vancha said decisively and I left the Prince's Dome to pass the message on to Larten. **

"**That will take a while. We should do it randomly and not make anybody aware of it that way they will not have time to hide or destroy the evidence against them" Larten said. **

"**That is a good point my love. I will make the Princes aware of that fact and then they can begin their searches" I replied.**

"**Anyway back to the tournament we should continue it as you are well enough now to duel" Larten said.**

"**Yes and that way if the clan think that things are going back to normal then it may lull them into a false sense of safety and then they could make a mistake that will reveal them to us" I replied.**

"**Yes I agree my love but anyway we have duties to attend to so we had better get on with it. I have got a bit of business to attend to as I am in the process of being made a General again" Larten explained so we both left our quarters. I reported to the head cook and Larten went to the council meeting that he had been asked to attend. **

"**Ah Sarah it is so good to see you looking so well. Are you OK?" the head cook asked when I arrived in the kitchen with my guards to start plucking a goose for the Prince's High Table. **

"**I am very well thank you Chef. One goose will not feed the Princes on its own though" I said.**

"**That is why we have three geese and they will be stuffed with lemon, thyme and parsley before they are roasted" The head cook said.**

"**That sounds nice to me. I wish I could have goose but I have to be content with duck and rabbit pie" I said.**

"**You love my pies though Sarah" the head cook said.**

"**Yes Chef I do indeed but I like to eat a variety of foods and not the same thing all of the time" I explained.**

"**That is fair enough, I will sort you out something special if you like to share with Larten" the head cook said.**

"**That would be great. I will take the pie too as I am starving Chef" I said.**

"**Would you like a fish dish? We have lots of fresh fish now as it is the summer. The river is full of trout" The head cook said.**

"**That would be nice. I would like that a lot as game and poultry is great but I need something different" I said.**

"**How about I cook you a whole trout that will be cooked in milk and served with lemon and parsley mayonnaise?" The head cook suggested. **

"**That would be lovely Chef" I said. **

**The head cook was newly blooded to our clan and he had brought a lot of ingredients with him from his home so he was able to expand our menu. **

**I finished in the kitchen and after I washed up I was free to do as I pleased until it was time to eat. My guards came with me when I went to fly my hawks. I had not flown them for a while as I had been too sick to do it but now that I was better I put their bells on and I let them fly free around the mountain. **

"**C'mon then go fly" I said and both Diamond and Angel took to the air and I watched them in the twilight. I heard them squawking to each other and then I saw Diamond swoop down and when she reappeared she had what looked like a hare clasped in her talons. **

**Angel did the same and she too caught something. **

"**C'mon then Angel, Diamond" I called out. My hawks flew to me and dropped their kills at my feet. The hawks had brought back a hare and a fox cub. I pulled the fox cub apart with my hands and fed it to the hawks. They ate quickly and then they flew around again whilst I cleaned out their aviary. I got rid of the feathers and I put some clean perches in there for them, I also filled up the water dispenser.**

**I loved my hawks and they gave me something to do so that I was not as stressed as what I had been due to the poisoning incident. I was still fearful of my life but I managed to focus and I slowly began to trust people again. **

**The random searches of the quarters and the mountain had revealed the arsenic and we found some in one person's quarters but they were not at the mountain when the poisoning took place so they were cleared of any wrong doing. It was a real mystery but it would be solved eventually. **

**The arsenic was found in a storeroom next to the salt and other seasonings. It was easy to see how it could have been mixed in with the food or rather it could have been picked up and used as salt by accident but as I never used salt it was not me who had used it by accident.**

**Eventually the truth was revealed and it was a shocking tale of betrayal and sadness for us all…..**

**Chapter 24 the Attempted Murder Trial**

**It turned out that a shady vampire called David was the guilty party after all of our investigations. His motive was revenge pure and simple because I had refused to make him into a full vampire as he was not ready. It was not my job anyway as he was not my assistant and therefore I had no say in when he would be made into a full vampire. **

**We had to prepare the courtroom for the trial. We turned an empty hall into the court room. We built seats and boxes for the spectators and the witnesses and a special box for the accused party to stand.**

**There had not been an attempted murder trial held before in the mountain so I had to tell the vampires what to do to make it a fair trial. I was the victim so I had to speak and I had to be cross examined as with the accused before the jury made up its mind on the verdict which was almost certain to be guilty but it was not guaranteed. **

**I was quite nervous but I had no choice about this Trial. It had to be done as that was vampire law. Vampire law states that minor crimes are settled by a decision by the Princes but major crimes go to trial like humans do. **

**We all had a role to play as it were. I was the victim, Larten was the prosecution lawyer, Prince Vancha was the judge, Prince Mika was the defence lawyer as nobody else wanted to do it, and twelve Generals made up the jury.**

**We also had character referees for myself and for the defence and we had a couple of guards who had found incriminating evidence to speak as witnesses for the prosecution.**

**Eventually everything was ready and we filed into the courtroom in silence. I took my seat and Larten took his seat too then we stood up for the arrival of the Princes and then the trial began.**

"**Vampires and vampiresses of the jury you have been charged with deciding the fate of the accused David who stands before you now accused of attempted murder and actual bodily harm. The victim is our very own Sarah Crepsley who we all know and respect. It is your job to listen to the evidence that is put before you and to deliver your verdict at the end of these proceedings" Prince Vancha said and we all sat down.**

"**Would the defence please state their case?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Certainly Sire. The defence claims innocence in these matters and we enter a plea of not guilty on both counts" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Very well Sarah, have you anything to add?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Yes. I want the accused to be imprisoned rather than executed if he is found guilty as life in prison for five hundred years or more is better than being executed" I said.**

"**If that is your wish then it will be considered but it is up to the jury to decide on the fate of the accused" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**The defence will state its case first" Prince Vancha said.**

**At this point Prince Mika made a speech about how David was young and stupid but he was not a murderer and that he had an alibi for the night of the poisoning so it could not have been him. Then Larten stood up and he spoke for the prosecution;**

"**As you all know I am Sarah's blessed mate and when I took my vows I swore to protect and stand by my mate no matter what the circumstances. I ask that you grant us justice and sentence that rogue in the dock to death so that he cannot try and poison anybody else. I have had to look after Sarah and I have had to post guards outside our quarters and now Sarah will not eat anything unless I have made it which is obviously a burden to you all as I have been forced to abandon my duties in favour of looking after my blessed mate. This heinous crime has affected both of us and the clan immensely and now it is time for justice to be granted to us and if there is any justice in this clan you will find the accused guilty of all charges that are against him" Larten said in his stern voice that showed that he meant business. **

"**Thank you for your statement Larten. The defence will have a chance to respond now" Prince Vancha said.**

"**David you are accused of two horrible crimes. Do you have anything to say?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Yes Sire I have lots to say. I am innocent of the charges that have been put to me. The evidence that you have against me must have been planted as I have an alibi for the night of the poisoning. I was out hunting with my mate and I did not return until after Sarah was hospitalised. I have several witnesses who saw me hunting and I have enemies in the clan who have been trying to engineer my downfall since I arrived here. People are jealous of me and they hate me because I was close to Kurda the only real traitor in this clan. It is awful that this has happened but I did not do it and if you kill me the Gods of the Vampires will judge you for killing an innocent man" David said then he sat down. **

"**Can we see the evidence against the accused now please?" Prince Vancha said.**

**At this point in the proceedings the two Generals who had the evidence stood up and presented it to the court. The Generals presented the bottle of arsenic along with the sample of rug that had been taken from David's quarters that also had arsenic on it. **

**Then the Generals presented their other evidence which was a witness who had seen David putting something into the food that had made me sick and as he had not been on kitchen duty at the time it was rather suspicious. **

"**The evidence against the accused is strong but it could have been planted. What were you doing to Sarah's food when you were seen in the kitchen?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I put some seasoning into Sarah's food. I was going to ask her how it tasted afterwards but obviously I never got the chance. It is stupid I know but I wanted an honest opinion. The food must have already been poisoned and by adding seasoning I was unknowingly setting myself up for a fall because I did not commit this crime" David replied.**

"**Why did you not wait until it was your turn in the kitchen?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**As far as I was aware it was my turn in the kitchen. I had been told to go there and help prepare the food by Kitty as she needed help and the chef did not mind. I had finished all of my other duties and although I was not meant to be on kitchen duties I went anyway" David explained.**

"**Is that your defence? I thought that you were hunting?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I did go hunting after I had finished in the kitchen and by the time that I returned with my mate Sarah was in the medical wing and I was blamed for it. I can explain the arsenic in my room too. I had some to use on the cockroaches that I had in there, I sprinkled it into my rugs and by the door so that any cockroach that crossed it would absorb it through their skin and die. I had been given permission from Seba Nile to de-cockroach my quarters" David explained.**

"**I understand and that is why this case is hard to solve. If you did not do it out of revenge as the prosecution claim then who did do it?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I don't know who did it Sire but it was me" David replied.**

"**Alright let's see the defence's evidence" Prince Vancha said and the defence showed their evidence including statements from David's mate who swore that they hunted all night and that David was not the sort of person who would get revenge on anyone no matter what they had done.**

"**The court will now retire whilst the jury consider their verdicts" Prince Vancha announced so we all left except for the jury. **

"**It is in the hands of the Gods of the Vampires now. If they bless us we will have justice and if not David will walk free. In my opinion he is evil and he could have killed you my love if not for the swiftness of the medic and his skills" Larten said when had retired to our quarters.**

"**I do not believe that David is guilty, I think that somebody framed him just as he said but it is out of our hands now Larten. It is up to the jury to decide David's fate" I replied with uncertainty in my voice. **

"**Yes it is and I hope that they make the right decision but any decision that they do make will be a fair one I am sure" Larten replied in his monotone voice. **

"**I am going to bed. I am so tired and there is nothing that we can do until tomorrow evening anyway" I said as I got into bed. **

**I fell asleep quite quickly. I was troubled by David's fate and it was horrible thinking that I could have the death of an innocent man on my conscience. It was however up to the jury and there was nothing that could be done about it as their decision would be final.**

**I went into the courtroom that evening as nervous as David must have been and even though I was the victim I felt like I was on trial too.**

**Prince Vancha walked in and we all stood up until he had sat down.**

"**Yesterday you heard all of the evidence in this case and now I must ask the foreman of the jury have you reached a verdict that you are all agreed upon?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We have reached a verdict Sire" Vanez replied as he was foreman of the jury. **

"**What is your verdict on count one attempted murder?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We find the defendant David guilty of attempted murder" Vanez said.**

"**What is your verdict on count two of actual bodily harm?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We find the defendant David guilty of actual bodily harm" Vanez announced.**

"**David you have been convicted on both charges. Foreman of the jury, have you voted for or against execution?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We have voted for execution by the pit of stakes" Vanez replied.**

"**David for your heinous crimes you will be taken from this courtroom to the dungeons and there you will await your execution date. Take him away" Prince Vancha said and David was led away to the dungeons to await his horrid fate. **

"**These proceedings are over unless anyone has anything to say" Prince Vancha said.**

**The whole was silent for a moment until I stood up and spoke;**

"**Prince Vancha I have something to say. I wish that David gets his last rights and I want him to have a better execution than the pit of stakes as he is so young and in my heart I believe that he is innocent. As the victim of this crime I have the right to ask for whatever I wish and these are my wishes Sire" I said.**

"**Very well Sarah if you insist upon this then I will do as you wish but it is not very common for the victims of crime to ask for mercy on behalf of the guilty party. You always were different though and that is why I respect you" Prince Vancha said.**

"**Thank you Sire, I appreciate this" I said.**

"**This court is adjourned" Prince Vancha said.**

**We all left the courtroom and it was a relief that this whole horrible matter had been concluded but it was not the result that I wanted. I had tried to make it better but it was really hard to watch an execution of such a young vampire as David was only a couple of decades older than me and as a result he only looked slightly older than me. **

**I felt really bad for David but a jury had found him guilty and although he had a believable defence it was not enough to save him from his fate. **

"**Are you OK?" Larten asked me.**

"**Yes but I am disappointed that David has to die. It is just too horrible" I replied.**

"**You do not have to watch the execution my love, it is up to you entirely as you are the victim" Larten said.**

"**I know but I should watch it really and as David is not getting the pit of stakes how will he die?" I asked curiously.**

"**Well he could be hung or beheaded but the most common is beheading" Larten said.**

"**It is still very messy though, I would rather that he was banished from the mountain and made to survive on his own out there rather than a guaranteed death" I replied. **

"**Well that is not the vampire way. We always make examples of our traitors and our criminals as it is the only way to ensure safety for vampires like you and me who live by the rules" Larten replied glumly. **

"**How many deaths have you watched?" I asked.**

"**I have seen too many executions to count. Most of them were vampires who failed the Trials of Death. I always thought that execution for failure of the Trials of Death was a stupid idea but I cannot change our traditions. The worst execution that I ever saw was of a vampiress who had killed her mate because he had been unfaithful to her. She was a mere child as she had been blooded young like Samantha was. She was so scared and she did not understand what was happening as she did not speak any English at all and none of us spoke her language. We gave her last rights and we tried to explain to her but she was a wreck and she sobbed a lot. I tried to stop it but she was a murderer and so she had to die. It was horrible watching this child die but it had to be done. I prayed for her as much as I could and I hope that she found peace but I will never know for sure" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right. Where was this girl from?" I asked.**

"**She came from somewhere in Asia. She had sneaked aboard a ship and she ended up in a cabin belonging to one of our clan members where she was blooded but she did not understand anything that was going on and her mentor did not understand a word of her language either so it was doomed to failure from the start and she should never have been blooded in my opinion" Larten replied.**

"**Well most certainly not in those circumstances but that is a young fully blooded vampire for you. They blood and mate with everything human that moves unless their mentors teach them some respect and they never care about the consequences of their actions" I said.**

"**That is very true Sarah" Larten replied.**

"**Well I think that there should be rules about who gets blooded and who can actually blood humans so that we can try and avoid these problems as I have seen so many teenagers here recently that it is stupid. They all have the same story about being from broken homes and falling in love with their mentors was their ticket to freedom Larten" I said.**

"**I agree but I am not innocent I mean first there was Darren, you and then Samantha but at least I take responsibility for my charges and I am very selective about who I blood and who I leave behind" Larten replied.**

"**I know that but even I have not always been appreciative of the gift that you have given me as it is also a curse but the pros have outweighed the cons and now I would not have it any other way" I said.**

"**You like your powers and you love me but it is not enough. I hope that you are happy Sarah as I do everything that I can to make you love your life" Larten said.**

"**I have never been happier my love but I do miss my friends that I had. They will be adults now with jobs and families, I am sure that they miss me too Larten but I love you so much and I have a lot of friends here to make up for it" I replied.**

"**I know that Sarah and you will always have me no matter what happens to the clan. I have never met anybody as entertaining as you and you are not afraid of risking everything for your principals" Larten replied.**

"**Are you going to become a General again Larten?" I asked.**

"**Of course but we have to wait for the next council gathering before I can be voted in and invested. You will love it Sarah and if I become a Prince you can share my throne too as I said before" Larten said.**

"**That would be totally awesome Larten. I would really love that" I said.**

"**I saw you eying up the thrones the other night. You have always had your eyes on the big prize but it is hard work and you have to earn the benefits" Larten said.**

"**I know that Larten but I am happy to be by your side to start with and then I will earn my own throne in my own right" I said.**

"**I have no doubt of it. I would love to see you giving orders out and putting your pompousness to good use" Larten replied.**

"**I think you mean the pompousness that I get from you Larten as I never used to be like this until you came along and you know it" I said.**

"**I watched you walking around with your head in the air the other night like you owed the place. I guess that you were showing off your tiara" Larten said.**

"**Yes I was and by the way I am an aristocrat Larten as I am descended from French nobles who were related to William the Conqueror. My family has a coat of arms so I am entitled to be a bit haughty sometimes as it is in my blood" I said.**

"**I understand now Sarah and by the way if that is the case then why would a noble like you want a pauper like me?" Larten asked.**

"**You are not a pauper Larten as you became my blessed mate and as a result of that you gained a social class upgrade due to my status" I said.**

"**So I am a dowager aristocrat then through marriage?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes I guess so but obviously vampire society is different so we have our vampire standing as well as our human status" I explained.**

"**Of course but it makes no difference to us here as human class systems have no place here but it is nice to think that we have high standing" Larten replied.**

"**Yes it is but we must not be too pompous or arrogant as it is bad manners and it may offend other clan members" I replied. **

"**That is very true Sarah. You have grown up so much since I blooded you all those years ago and it has paid off as you have turned out pretty well under my guidance and because of me you live in luxury or as best as I can provide for you as I really do care about you" Larten replied.**

"**I know you do Larten. When is the execution?" I asked.**

"**I am not sure but it will be when David has had his last rights and when somebody steps up to be the executioner" Larten said.**

"**So you do not have an executioner?" I asked.**

"**No normally it is not required for the pit of stakes but in the case of a beheading somebody has to step forward and do the deed" Larten explained.**

"**Who will step forward then?" I asked.**

"**Well normally the Princes will decide amongst themselves who does it but after the last time with Kurda it was too hard for them to choose for this execution so I might put my name forward to do the job horrible as it is. You know that I am highly skilled with a sword and I at least would make a clean job of it as where some of the others may not be so accurate" Larten said.**

"**You would seriously consider executing David personally? This is not a revenge thing for me is it?" I asked.**

"**I admit that it is partly about that but it is also about mercy as you asked for last rights and my act of mercy is to make a quick end to him as like you said suffering is pointless" Larten explained.**

"**You have softened a lot since I have been with you and you have changed. I never knew that you were so merciful to those who do not necessarily deserve it but I am of course grateful" I said.**

"**You know that it is our anniversary soon Sarah. What do you want me to get you as you have everything as it is?" Larten asked.**

"**I have not really thought about it to be honest Larten, I had not forgotten about it but I have not really considered what to get you either. Maybe we should not get presents but instead we should do something special on our own just you and me" I suggested.**

"**That is a good idea but what would we do? I mean we have been to Vampire Ville, we have lived here for years and the Cirque Du Freak has broken up for the summer before they reunite in the autumn. We need to do something that means something to both of us and something that we will always remember as it is a special occasion" Larten replied.**

"**Maybe we could return to England and visit the places that I left behind or maybe we could visit a theme park and go on the roller-coasters as they are so much fun" I suggested.**

"**What on Earth is a roller-coaster Sarah?" Larten asked.**

"**It is like a ride. You sit in a car and you are strapped in whilst you go round a track at two hundred miles an hour over loop the loops and upside down. It is so much fun and everybody screams with excitement. You would love it" I said.**

"**How long does the ride last?" Larten asked.**

"**It lasts about two minutes but it seems a lot longer than that" I said.**

"**I think that those sort of things do not appeal to me but if you like it then I will give it a go. I think that I am too old for human excitements like that personally and why would you want to go to a place that is crawling with humans and I bet that it is not open at night time either?" Larten asked, he sounded grumpy.**

"**Well that is a point but we can still go to England and enjoy ourselves" I replied.**

"**No I think that I want to take you on a mystery tour instead and show you around some of my old cities that I loved when I was human but they will be so much different now. It would be nice to see what has happened to the city where I grew up as it has been a long time since I went there" Larten suggested.**

"**Alright that sounds like fun. As long as these cities have decent hotels in them" I said sternly.**

"**I am sure that I can find a suitable hotel for us both" Larten said.**

"**Cool I hope that it is a decent one as you know what I am like and it is a special occasion so we deserve to celebrate it" I said.**

"**Maybe we could have a party here first to celebrate with the clan and then we could leave for my old home city afterwards. What do you think?" Larten asked.**

"**Oh yes that would be grand and that way everybody has something to look forward to although I would like David there as then he can have some fun before he must die. Is that possible to arrange?" I asked.**

"**I can see no reason why not but it is highly unusual" Larten said.**

"**Well that is a relief, it can be part of his last rights as my way of forgiving him" I replied.**

"**I think that it would be a nice surprise for him to have before he enters Paradise" Larten replied.**

"**Alright well we will do that then. I can start making preparations for our anniversary party whilst you sort out the other stuff" I said.**

"**If that is what you want then that is what I will do. You get spoiled rotten but it is worth it as you have earned it and I have some money put by so it should be a good party" Larten said.**

"**Cool. Thank you for this Larten. I really appreciate it and you know how much that you mean to me Larten and this party will be one to remember. Do you think that we should have champagne?" I asked hopefully.**

"**Of course we can have whatever we like and no expense will be spared as it is our party and we have worked so hard to save up for it so enjoy it" Larten said.**

"**That is what I had hoped that you would say my love. I will begin planning and making the decorations and you will need to organise a hunt to feed us all as I want a big time feast and this will be a major event in the Clan's calendar. It will be bigger than when an investiture takes place and almost as big as our blessed mateship was" I said.**

"**Well if you want to pull out all of the stops then feel free and I of course will pay for it as is tradition so have whatever you like and make a list of what it is so I know who to pay. You could invite the Cirque Du Freak to put on a show for us or maybe they could be our VIP guests if I arranged it with Hibernious as he owes me a favour anyway" Larten said. **

"**Are you serious? Can I actually have whatever I like?" I asked.**

"**Of course you can and just think of when we are alone. Imagine how that will be for you" Larten said looking at me suggestively. **

"**Well yes I had quite forgotten about that but now that you mention it I hope that it will be as I imagine it to be" I replied. **

"**I will of course make it special for you and it will mean something to us both. I hope that I can satisfy you as it would be a disaster if I could not make you happy on our anniversary" Larten replied. **

"**I have no doubts about you satisfying me in that way but we had better discuss the decorations and the other plans for our party. I was hoping to sing a couple of songs to show you how I have improved and if we did a duet then it would be really good" I said.**

"**Are you actually asking me to sing with you?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes because I have heard you and we could sing something in Japanese or we could sing a song about the clan if you wanted to. I know lots of songs that I could sing with you or songs that I know about you" I replied. **

"**I am not very good performing in public. My talent as a singer I would rather keep private as it could cause people to ask me how to teach them and I cannot teach natural talent. However I do not suppose that three songs would be too much if you also sing three songs" Larten said.**

"**Alright we can do that if you want to as we are both pretty good and we could get the band to back us up" I said.**

"**That is the entertainment sorted and now we have to discuss the other stuff but we can do that later on" Larten said.**

"**Yes we can. I have duties to attend to later but right now I need to sleep as I am shattered" I said.**

"**Alright you can go to bed but I am not tired. I may pop down to the Halls of Sport and watch the chess for a while" Larten said.**

"**Oh alright well I will be here waiting for you when you return but try not to wake me up like you normally do as I cannot be bothered to shift around trying to get comfortable again like I normally have to after you curl up next to me" I said.**

"**I will try not to disturb you but I have never known such a light sleeper as yourself" Larten said as he left for the Halls of Sport.**

"**Bye my love I will see you later" I called out.**

"**Bye Sarah, sleep well my dear" Larten replied before he vanished in a red blur. **

**I got into my bed and I lay there for what seemed like ages as I was cold without Larten lying next to me as we normally shared body heat. The mountain was always cold even in the summer time as it never had the sun light to warm up the inside of our halls so fires were lit all year round instead. **

**When Larten eventually turned up he was obviously inebriated and incoherent so I did not even try to get any sense out of him he just got into bed and he woke up with a sore head due to the strong alcohol that he had consumed. **

"**Why do you drink so much?" I asked.**

"**I was bored and Gavnur challenged me to a drinking contest so I accepted. I consumed eight barrels of ale before Gavnur collapsed and I was declared the winner but now I have a thumping head ache as a consequence" Larten said.**

"**Well that will teach you to think before you accept a challenge like that again" I replied.**

"**If you do not have any objections I am going to sleep this hangover off and then I have duties to perform. I will join you for duties later if you have not finished them by then. Then we will discuss our party and I will see the Princes about me doing that execution as it is up to them really. I also need to discuss the party with them so that they can prepare for it" Larten said.**

"**Alright then I will leave you to rest and I will complete my duties" I replied as I got dressed and left our quarters. **

**I had duties in the Halls of Sport and then I had to fly my hawks. Halls of Sport duties were quite simple tonight as I only had to dust the equipment off, I had to polish the metal and varnish the wooden objects.**

**After I had finished in the Halls of Sport I had to clean the halls where the party would be held which took ages because I was alone and the hall was filthy from where it had been disused for a while and nobody had been in there in a long time. **

**The hall was rather large and its original use has been a training room but it stopped getting used because an accident had happened in there and nobody wanted to go in there after that. The roof had collapsed and as a result two Generals had been seriously injured, the roof was repaired but it was not done very well and it made it dangerous. I got it fixed though as I could not hold a party in a hall if the roof could collapse at any time. **

**I was glad to get my duties out of the way and now that I had some free time I could go out and fly my hawks for a while as they needed regular exercise. After I returned from flying my hawks I bumped into Gavnur who was very hung over still as he had drunk a lot of alcohol and he really did not look very well at all. **

**I saw somebody dressed in red so I went over at full flitting speed thinking that it was Larten but it was not Larten who I crashed into it was Seba who was in the corridor and I was so embarrassed.**

"**I am so sorry Seba. I thought that you were Larten and I did not realise that it was you until it was too late" I said.**

"**It is quite alright, it is an easy mistake to make. Larten must still be in bed as I have not seen him but I did see a green faced Gavnur earlier. He looked very ill indeed" Seba replied.**

"**Yes they had a drinking challenge last night and Larten won but Gavnur does not have as much alcohol tolerance as Larten so that is why Gavnur is suffering now" I explained.**

"**I did see them in the Halls of Sport drinking like a pair of foolish young vagabonds but maybe this will teach them some control" Seba replied.**

"**Yes I would hope so Seba but it is not up to me if my blessed mate and his best friend hold a drinking contest" I replied.**

"**No it is not up to you but it is a shame that you have to put up with Larten being so hung over" Seba replied as he turned to leave the corridor.**

**In a flash Seba had disappeared and I was alone in the corridor once more so I followed it along to the opposite end to where Seba had gone and turned right up the staircase and along another long corridor until I reached the door of my quarters. I opened it and it creaked loudly (I must remember to get some oil and put it on the hinges) I thought to myself as I entered my room. **

**I saw a lump in my bed, I assumed that it was Larten so I went over to wake him up but to my great surprise it was not Larten in my bed it was a very lost Tabitha who had ended up in my quarters because she had used the wrong staircase, followed the wrong corridor and got mixed up. Larten was nowhere to be found so after we had a good laugh about it Tabitha left my quarters and I was alone once more. **

**I had a shower but when I went to change out of my rough clothing that I wore for my duties I could not find anything in my wardrobe that was suitable as all my clothing was either in the wash or it was too fine to wear so I was sort of stuck. I ran down the corridor and I knocked on Mari's door as I hoped that she would have some spare clothes until mine had been dried. Mari spoke Japanese so I had to speak Japanese back to her but mine was not very good.**

"**Konbanwa Mari San" I said.**

"**Konbanwa Sarah, O genki desuka?" Mari replied.**

"**Hai genki desu Mari san. Huku wo kawakasite moraemasuka?" I asked. **

"**Hai" Mari said and she disappeared for a second before she bought me a bag of dry, clean clothes.**

"**Arigatou gozaimasu Mari san" I said and I left.**

**I basically said good evening, asked Mari how she was and then asked her for some dry clothes. I had been practising my Japanese as Mari was a good friend of mine and she had taught me a little Japanese. I had tried to teach her English in return but it was hard. **

**After I had got dressed I went to find Larten as I had not seen him for ages. I assumed that he was out hunting so I went to the Halls of Sport and as I was bored I went on the Bars and practised my moves until I was challenged to a duel. I sent my opponent to the ground and then another person jumped up but she was soon in a heap on the floor as I was far superior to both of my opponents. I did not like to brag but it was true and I had earned my champions tiara so I wore it with honour but not all the time as it was rather heavy. **

**I eventually found Larten in one of the store rooms.**

"**There you are Larten, I have searched the whole mountain for you" I complained.**

"**Why is that?" Larten asked.**

"**I wanted to ask you if you have decided what decorations you would like to be hung up for our party" I said.**

"**That is what I am looking for Sarah, there is a big box of stuff in one of the store rooms that is full of ribbons and other fancy bits" Larten explained.**

"**Oh I know the box that you mean. I have no idea where it is though as I have not seen it since I used it last for our blessed mateship it seems to have disappeared" I said.**

"**Well it had loads of banners and other material that we had hung up before, I figured that we could use the same decorations and make some new ones for the tables as we did not have that before" Larten said.**

"**That is a good idea but where the hell has this box been stored?" I asked sounding frustrated.**

"**Maybe somebody moved it and forgot to tell us or maybe it was discarded as rubbish by somebody who did not know what it was" Larten replied.**

"**It is definitely not in this room and it is not upstairs either as I have already searched. The only place that we have not looked is in the Princes' personal storeroom but how it got there if it is in there would be a mystery" I said.**

"**Well we had better go and look as this search has turned up nothing" Larten replied.**

**So we headed up to the Princes' store room and sure enough we found what we were looking for. The box that we had been looking for had been put inside one of our big wooden chests that had lots of banners and other decorations in it that we needed to hang up for our party. **

**We took the chest out of the store room and we found all of our missing decorations and some other stuff that was not ours so we left that behind and took the chest up to our quarters.**

**We needed to go through it properly in order to find out what we needed to make and also what materials we had left over to make stuff from. **

"**I am glad that we found this chest. How the heck did it get into the Princes' personal store room though? I instructed the people who tidied up after our blessed mateship to pack everything away and put it into our quarters, they packed it away neatly but they put it in the wrong place" I complained.**

"**Well at least we have it now and we do not need to make much. Some wreaths for the doors and a few for the table would be good but we have enough stuff for the walls and the ceilings already" Larten explained.**

"**That is a relief Larten but it will still take ages to hang all of this stuff up though, we need a team of people who have not got any duties to decorate the halls for us as we have enough to do. Have you sorted out the menus yet?" I asked.**

"**I have done some and I have sent out the hunting party with strict instructions to bring back everything that they can find to make a major feast including fresh fruits and nuts as they are plentiful in the summer" Larten explained.**

"**At least that is sorted out and that means that I do not have to worry about the food. I am dealing with the drinks and the entertainment and speaking of entertainment we need to rehearse our songs Larten as you do not know the words to the songs that I have chosen" I explained.**

"**Yes we must rehearse that is for sure but right now we need to pass this chest over to the decorating crew" Larten said.**

"**Well who is in charge now? Obviously Gavnur is not well enough to do it so shall we ask Vanez to step in?" I asked. **

"**Yes that would be a good idea, Vanez is sensible enough to run a decorating crew" Larten agreed. **

"**Well that is sorted then and now we have to go and practice our songs as neither of us has anything else to do" I replied and I fetched my battery powered CD player and my dusty, old CD case. **

**I had decided to sing a song by Olly Murs that I had changed the lyrics to, a song by Britney Spears and a song by Christina Aguilera. Larten had chosen to sing a duet with me which was a Disney song with altered lyrics, a song by Shane Ward and another song that had altered lyrics by Busted. **

**It was fun to practice and I was looking forward to singing live for the clan. **

"**My name is Sarah, nice to meet you can I tell you Larten? I looked around there's a whole lot of vampire Generals but not like you, you fight so well yeah. I was wondering if you and I could spend a minute on the Bars up close getting lost in it and I just want you to duel with me tonight" I sung. **

**Then Larten came in with his song.**

"**That is what I took the Trials for, even though it is a real bore and you can call me crazy I know that you crave me. You are who I took the Trials for, girlfriends I have had plenty but not like you Sarah Crepsley" **

**It was so much fun singing but the Disney song was the hardest as I was meant to sing it with Larten but it was hard to alter the lyrics to it. We had picked the song "A whole new world" from Aladdin. I changed most of the lyrics but it was hard to sing.**

"**I can show you my clan, full of darkness and shadows. Tell me Sarah now when did you last let your scars decide? I can open your eyes and take you up to the mountain over hillsides and rivers on a dangerous vampire ride, a whole new world, a new vampiric point of view. No one to tell us no or where to go or say we are only humans" Larten sung then I came in with my part.**

"**A whole new world, a new vamptastic point of view, when I am in the clan it is all a plan let me share this whole new clan with you" I continued.**

**Then we both sung the last bit.**

"**Every Trial a challenge, every moment dangerous, I will take you anywhere there is time to spare, let me join this whole new clan with you, a thrilling chase, and a wondrous place for you and me" We sung in this bit in unison.**

"**That was good. We have got a good version going there so we just need to practice it now until it is perfect" I said.**

"**I agree but it is hard to do and this song is not very vampiric" Larten moaned.**

"**Well it is kind of vampiric and it will show the clan a new side to us that they have not seen before" I replied.**

"**Alright, alright if you insist upon this then I will do it but we will not live it down. Mind you I am sure that the clan would rather here us singing together instead of other noise" Larten said.**

"**Yes that is a good point" I said.**

**We continued to practice all of our songs until we had them perfect and then we gave a small performance to our closest friends so that we could get their honest opinions.**

"**Well what do you think?" I asked after we finished singing our duet. **

"**That was a surprise but it was very good. I liked that version and it shows that you really care for each other" Seba said.**

"**Yes I also think that it was a good performance. If you looked at each other when you sing your individual bits to each other it would look better but that is my only point" Vanez said.**

"**Yes I thought that too but I thought that you had to face the audience when you sing" I said.**

"**Yes but if it is meant to be romantic then you face each other as then it looks more effective but the song sounds great" Vanez replied.**

"**Thank you for the feedback, it is appreciated" I said.**

**After our performance we sorted out a few other things and then we had more free time so I was able to practice one of my solo songs as it was hard to perform. I started singing it out loudly to myself whilst I tried to get it to sound right as I was going to sing it without any form of backing music. So I started to sing my version of a Christina Aguilera song called "Reflection"**

"**Look at me you may think that you see who I really am but you will never know me. Every night it is as if I am in a Trial, now I know that if I wear a mask I can fool my guards but I cannot fool my clan. Who is that vampiress that I see? She is staring back at me. When will my reflection show who I am inside? I am now in a clan where I have to hide my scars and what I believe in but somehow I will show the clan what is inside my veins and drink blood for who I am. Who is that vampiress that I see? She is staring straight back at me, why is my reflection someone that I do not know? When will my reflection show who I am inside?" I finished my song on a very high note that I managed to hold until everybody who had obviously heard me without me realising started clapping. **

**I was quite embarrassed but I had been singing loudly and everybody who passed my quarters must have heard me practising my big ballad. **

"**Sarah has a remarkable voice and it has been a long time since we had somebody here who could sing like her without any backing at all. I heard Larten singing too and together they sound brilliant" I heard Seba say to Vanez. **

**I was so pleased that everybody appreciated my voice and I knew that our anniversary party was going to be brilliant. I was really looking forward to it and as I could have whatever I wanted I was expecting the best of everything. **

**Chapter 25 the Anniversary Party**

**The night of the anniversary party arrived and everybody was dressed in their best clothes just like they were for our blessed mateship ceremony. The halls were decorated with all sorts of banners and ribbons that had been hung up from every corner of the room. **

**I was pleased to see a good number of guests who had turned up to celebrate our anniversary. The guests were not all clan members either as the whole Cirque Du Freak in its entirety had come to party. **

**I had not met all of the Cirque Du Freak members so it was so cool to meet them as some of them had amazing abilities. One girl who was about twelve could manipulate fire in her hands. She could surround herself with a fire ball and step out of it unharmed. It made me watch her skills in awe as I had never seen anything quite like that before. **

**Sive and Seersa the twisting twins came along, they were women now and not the teenagers who I had known when I travelled with the Cirque Du Freak. They had grown up a lot and they had aged but of course I looked the same. Then I saw Evra Von the snake man and his family, I was glad that they had made the trip as I missed Evra and so did Prince Darren as Evra and Prince Darren had been best friends for a long time. **

**When I had mingled with the guests for a while the band started playing and then the fun started. Everybody was dancing and having a good time which was good except for David who was at the party but he was in shackles and he was under guard in case he tried to escape. He was however on his best behaviour even though he was not really dressed for the occasion as he was still a prisoner at the end of the night. **

**I enjoyed the feast that had been provided for us, we had tonnes of food and drinks, everybody tucked into roasted meats and other things. I had made a vat of soup for everybody to share and there was so much alcohol floating around that soon everybody was tipsy and the alcohol kept on flowing so that everybody could drink and party until the dawn came. I knew that everybody was going to be hung over but nobody turns down free champagne even vampires like to celebrate in style sometimes. **

**I had to remember not to drink too much as I had to sing and after the party was over I obviously had to go to bed and celebrate my anniversary with Larten on my own with him so I did not want to be too inebriated. **

**The time came for me to sing my songs and I was not at all nervous. I stood up on our makeshift stage and I started my first song which was the Olly Murs song "Dance with me tonight" with a few lyrical changes.**

**Larten came up on stage halfway through my song and I was able to sing it to him then as my song was all about asking Larten to duel me and how I had seen him on the Bars all alone looking like he wanted to duel and that he did not care that he was alone up there. **

**Next I sung with Larten as we did our ballad next. It was hard to keep focused as I got all emotional because the lyrics meant a lot to both of us.**

**Finally we finished off the rest of our songs amongst the cheers and cries for encores from the crowd and when it was all over we got a standing ovation so Larten scooped me up as if he was on ice and he held me up high and spun me round to show me off amidst all of the cheering and clapping from the drunk and entertained vampires. We took our bows and we sat down as we needed to get our breath back as we had held the last note for a few bars so that it sounded really good. **

**I loved singing as it was one of my favourite hobbies and when I got such a positive response it made it all worthwhile. I had practiced hard and it paid off. I continued to party until I could not stand up anymore. I danced until I was exhausted. I collapsed into a seat and drunk a barrel of water to counteract the alcohol that I had consumed. **

**Eventually I got to my feet with help and staggered up the stairs to my quarters. I collapsed on my bed and I was a mess. I was very drunk and I could not really think straight as I had drunk so much. **

**I had not really intended to drink so much but my weakness was raspberry sours with lemonade. I had drunk a lot of it and though it was not that strong I had drunk about two bottles of it which was way more than what I was supposed to have drunk. **

**If I thought that I was drunk though I only had to look at Larten who was passed out next to me as he had got totally wasted and he was so drunk that he had to be carried up to our quarters, I staggered with help but there was no way that either of us could mate so I did the only wise thing and slept off the effects of my raspberry sours and champagne. **

**I had insisted upon getting bottles of very expensive champagne that cost around two thousand pounds for twelve bottles, we needed a lot to share out so we spent a huge amount of money on getting the very best as Larten had told me that I could have the very best that money could buy. **

**I was so drunk it was ridiculous but it had been my fault as I had not controlled myself. I fell asleep on my bed next to Larten and he was totally dead to the world so he did not even stir when I moved next to him and curled up to sleep off my drinking session. **

**I heard a lot of banging around and that woke me up, I woke up with a thumping headache and I felt very sick but I was alright, I just had a hangover. I had not had a hangover for a long time so it felt dreadful but I only had myself to blame as no-one had forced me to drink as much as I had done. I was so weak when I woke up, I felt very ill and the thought of eating made me feel even sicker but I knew that I had to in order to get over my hangover. **

**I have no idea as to why I drunk so much but I was celebrating and I forgot about how much I had actually drunk so I drunk more and more until I was staggering everywhere and that is when I retired to bed with help. **

**When Larten eventually woke up he was a bit dizzy and he could not work out how he had got into his quarters so I explained it to him.**

"**You were carried up here by Seba and Vanez as you passed out. You drunk so much ale and champagne and I drunk what seemed like two bottles of raspberry sours and champagne so I staggered up here with help. You were totally unconscious so I curled up beside you and slept off most of my hangover but you are still a bit wobbly on your feet" I said.**

"**Why the hell did I drink so much? I was supposed to stay sober and so were you so that we could mate but obviously that did not happen" Larten replied.**

"**Well it does not matter. It is not the end of the world if we did not mate" I said naïvely.**

"**It certainly does matter as it is traditional because we are supposed to reaffirm our bond and then we are supposed to spend a few days together like this as part of the ritual" Larten replied.**

"**I did not realise that. I thought that it was just part of the celebrations but I did not realise that it was an actual ritual" I replied feeling stupid because I had not remembered how important it was. **

"**Well we can postpone until we have recovered fully from our alcoholic drinking session" Larten said.**

"**I agree, I need to train anyway as I am a bit podgy and my curves are not as defined as they once were but soon I will be back to the hourglass figure that I am supposed to be" I replied.**

"**I do not want you getting too thin but you do need to be a little bit more curvaceous as it is necessary to keep up your luscious looks" Larten replied.**

"**Thank you for that Larten. I know that I have neglected myself recently but that was only because I was so busy but now I have free time that I can use to train" I said.**

"**That is good to hear, I am hungry and I do not know about you but I need a good feed" Larten said.**

"**I think that I need a feed too but I have not thought about it so it would be good to get some fresh blood in me" I replied.**

"**I agree let us go and feed as we both need it and the blood here is not the freshest, we need a direct feed" Larten said as we both stood up and tried to get rid of our dizziness due to the fact that we were still kind of hung over, however the vampire blood in our veins had helped us to recover quicker than a normal human would have recovered.**

**I was still suffering slightly from my hangover when we decided to leave the mountain and go out for a feed, I needed blood and I was craving it so I had to feed and soon or I would grow weak, lose my powers, age quickly and die as was the fate for all vampires who did not feed regularly. **

**I set off at a medium flitting speed as I would have toppled over with motion sickness due to the alcohol if I had gone any faster than what I was going already. Larten followed close behind me and soon we were racing each other across the fields and over the mountain paths until we reached the nearest town where we would sneak into a side street and take a rest to get our breath back before we would proceed to climb up a wall, break into a home, feed ourselves on fresh, warm, delicious blood and leave before the dawn came. **

**I remember climbing up the wall until I reached the window and then I opened it and pulled myself into the bathroom, then Larten pulled himself in through the window also. We exited the bathroom and we were on the landing with three bedrooms in front of us. I headed to the nearest bedroom and opened the door, I saw a girl asleep in the bed she looked like she was in her mid-teens or early twenties. I went over to her and I took my fill, Larten was in the other room feeding on his victim and then I heard a thudding noise coming from up the stairs so I healed the wound that I was feeding from quickly and made my exit but Larten was not so lucky as the guy had caught him in the act and assumed that he was a burglar. **

**The police were called and Larten was carted off in the back of a police car. He would have flitted but that would un-covered what he was so he acted like a human and went quietly also the guy had a gun which could cause serious damage if Larten put up a fight. **

**I followed the police car at a safe distance and watched as Larten was taken into the station and booked into the custody suite until he could be interviewed. **

**I walked into the police station and went up to the reception desk.**

"**I believe that you arrested my husband for burglary" I said.**

"**Name" The policeman said.**

"**Sarah Crepsley and my husband is Larten Crepsley" I explained.**

"**Let me check the books. Ah yes a Mr Crepsley was indeed brought in to our custody suite. He stands charged with breaking and entering, assault and burglary which are not misdemeanours" The gruff policeman said.**

"**That is not good. What happens now?" I asked.**

"**Well in the morning your husband will be interviewed and formally charged but for now he is locked in one of our custody suites" The policeman explained.**

"**I want to see him. I hope that there are no windows as my husband has a severe sun allergy" I explained.**

"**Well he didn't mention it and there aren't any windows anyway" The policeman said.**

"**I still want to see him though" I insisted.**

"**Sorry it's against policy" The policeman said.**

"**When will he be released?" I asked.**

"**If bail is granted then tomorrow but that is all I know" The policeman grumbled.**

"**Oh right well I will come back tomorrow after the sun has gone down as I too have a bad sun allergy" I explained.**

"**Alright I will let the custody sergeant know" The policeman said and I left the police station and returned to the mountain alone. **

**Meanwhile back in the police station there was a huge commotion in the custody block. Larten had decided to escape by breaking the roof tiles of his cell, pulling himself up through the gap and escaping through the ventilation shaft and out onto the street. **

**The policemen tried to stop him from escaping but of course Larten was too strong and too fast for them, he hopped from one roof to another until he was out of sight then he flitted back to the mountain at top speed where I caught sight of him and it was a bit of a surprise but I knew that Larten would stay in a police cell for long if he had the chance to escape. **

**Larten told me how he had escaped and it was very ingenious, it was lucky that Larten could jump high and grab onto the ventilation pipes that he could shimmy along until he got out onto the roof via the attic space that had been used to store all of the police case files of the last fifty years. **

**Then all Larten did was kick the attic roof and it crumbled, he climbed through the gap and hopped from one roof to another before he simply jumped down onto a wheelie bin and set off at a full flit back to us here in the mountain. I was impressed and the police would never find him here as we were like a hundred or so miles away. **

**The police would never solve the case I thought to myself as I clambered into bed next to Larten who was upset that he had ripped his cloak when he was escaping from the police custody suite. **

"**You should have escaped in another way, you could have opened the door with your static charge rather than bursting through the roof and ripping your cloak in the process" I said.**

"**It would have made too much noise and anyway I wanted to get out into the fresh night air rather than running through a maze of corridors and locked gates" Larten replied.**

"**That is fair enough and besides I am glad that you escaped as now we can catch up on our lack of rituals" I said.**

"**Alright then although I am afraid that as I consumed so much alcohol I may not be able to perform to my greatest ability but I will still give it a good go" Larten replied.**

"**Well there is no point if you are not up to your highest standards" I complained.**

"**That is fair enough but I have missed you and we did refrain for a while so that it would be better for us both" Larten explained.**

"**I am not at my best standards either but I still want it badly enough to give it a go" I retorted.**

"**I guess it is like blood in the sense that if you do not get any for a while when you do get some you take more and the release is so much more powerful than what it would be normally" Larten said.**

"**Yes that is what I thought but we can hold off until we are both completely prepared" I replied.**

"**But I want it now for I cannot wait any longer. It has been too long since we became as one entity and shared a moment of pure excitement between the two of us my dear" Larten said.**

"**Alright then if that is what you want then fine but we must find somebody to do our duties for us as we will be unavailable for the next few evenings" I replied.**

"**Let them sort it out between themselves. I will put a symbol on the door that symbolises that we are taking part in our bonding ritual then no one will disturb us until we emerge after the ritual is complete" **

"**Oh right what symbol is that?" I asked as I had not heard of it before.**

"**It is a circle with twisted edges like a rope and in the middle of it there is like an infinity symbol that represents two people coming together as one for ever" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right you had better paint it upon the door as I have not heard of this particular symbol" I explained.**

"**I will do it now and then we will not leave this room until the ritual is complete" Larten said.**

"**What about food and going to the loo?" I asked sounding stupid.**

"**That is permitted but only at certain times of the night as this ritual is about us coming together and living as one entity in two separate bodies and after it is complete we will truly be blessed mates" Larten explained.**

"**What happens during the ritual?" I asked as it interested me.**

"**During the ritual we will mate and then we stay joined to each other so that we become one body and all of our fluids mingle together then the bond is sealed by repeating our vows to each other plus an additional vow which is to swear by all that is good and vampiric that we are blessed mates and that we will remain so until we die" Larten explained.**

"**How long do we stay joined to each other?" I asked.**

"**Until all of our fluids have been mixed together and that is when we will endure pleasure at the same moment so that we enter a state of sheer power that is uncontrollable" Larten said. **

"**So we basically orgasm at the same time and that will give us a feeling that neither of us has experienced" I replied.**

"**Yes if you want to think of it like that but it means more than that to me" Larten said.**

"**Alright so when does this ritual take place?" I asked.**

"**Whenever we decide that it is appropriate" Larten answered.**

"**Oh right, then that is alright with me. It sounds like I am going to have a lot of fun in this ritual and I hope against hope that I am not too loud when I show my appreciation to you when you and I hit the height of our orgasms" I said sounding a bit apprehensive.**

"**Well that is going to be a challenge but I hope that you have learnt some control over your vocal appreciation as this is going to be very powerful and I doubt that I myself will be able to control my voice" Larten said in response.**

"**Well then does it really matter what others think if we are performing a ritual?" I asked.**

"**Well not if they see the sign because it means that there will be some disturbances as it comes with the ritual, if they are not happy then they can leave the mountain" Larten said decisively. **

"**Alright if that is what you think then I will not hold back my vocal appreciations as long as you deserve them for I am not one to fake my emotions and you will know if I am enjoying it or not" I explained.**

"**How long has it been since you screamed out for more at my skilled hands?" Larten asked me.**

"**It has been a while because the last time was when Gavnur made that comment when I was in the medical wing" I explained although I was a bit unsure.**

"**We were in the Halls of Sport not that long ago and you seemed to take to that new routine quite nicely. That was fun and you know that it was good" Larten replied.**

"**I enjoyed it but it was not too powerful as we were not really going all out like normal" I replied.**

"**Well this time there will be no holding back and I will do whatever I can to make you beg for more before I give it to you as I am planning to actually go inside you fully instead of only half way like I normally do as I think that you can take it now" Larten said.**

"**Oh right well that would give me more sensation for a fact and that in turn would make it more powerful for me and as a result of that I would definitely appreciate your skills" I replied.**

"**Well in that case I will use all of my skills to make our ritual worth doing. I admit that I have held back until now some of my specialities that I should have used but you enjoy it so much already there was no need to use them until now, now it is time to use all of my skills in order to really make you appreciate my talents" Larten said. **

"**I am so looking forward to our ritual now Larten" I said.**

"**I expect that you are and I swear to you now that if you do not scream out my name and beg for more you can leave me and sleep with whoever that you feel will satisfy your needs" Larten said.**

"**Well you sound very confident about your abilities so I will hold you to that" I replied.**

**Then we heard somebody coming towards the door of our quarters. I opened the door and in walked Seba. **

"**I heard your conversation and I am here on behalf of your neighbours as they are not happy that you are intending to be very vocal during this ritual" Seba said.**

"**Well I cannot help it if my blessed mate is good at what he does" I said.**

"**Yes Seba, you are no longer my mentor and as such you cannot tell me not to perform our bonding ritual if we wish to" Larten said.**

"**Just please try not to be deliberately disruptive and if you really want to be vocal then save it for the woods" Seba said.**

"**No way Seba am I going to hold back for you or anybody else. The sign is on the door to give fair warning and if that is not good enough then they can get lost. Now if you do not mind Seba I have a blessed mate to satisfy" Larten said and with that Seba left leaving us alone in our quarters to do whatever we wanted and that meant performing this ritual. **

"**Right shall we start our ritual?" I asked.**

"**If you would like to then yes I think that we have waited long enough" Larten said in reply.**

**So we began our ritual and to start with it was just foreplay and then we really got into it and there was no holding back, Larten entered me fully and that caused me to gasp with shock but it felt so good and soon our bodies had joined together as one body. I did try not to scream too early but it was just too much and I had to tell Larten exactly what I was feeling at that precise moment in time.**

**I screamed out as I orgasmed and it threw me into a new sensation that was more powerful than what it ever had been and I could not control myself. **

**I was having the best sex that I had ever had and nothing compared to it. I hoped that Larten was enjoying it too; he seemed to be really into it as Larten was also breathing hard and he was really trying to make it fun for me. **

**I knew that I was not the easiest of people to penetrate but when Larten was inside me it was alright it just took him a bit of time before he hit a spot inside me that made me see stars and beg for more. It was pretty cool actually. **

**I loved doing this and we lasted for quite a while before we stopped and snuggled up together to sleep before we did the same again. **

**I was very stiff when I eventually woke up and I could not really move as my muscles had been pushed to their limits and now all I could do was sleep off the effects. I had not really been prepared for this ritual and as such I was not really up to doing much but I had to please Larten so I tried my best to recover quickly so that I could continue the ritual and get it out of the way so that I would be able to return to normal. **

"**Are you alright?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am very stiff and worn out but I think that I am OK" I replied whilst yawning.**

"**I went all out and I did not hold back, I know that you loved what I did to you because I have never heard you make noises like that before, it was almost as if I had made you enter Paradise and then I joined you there" Larten said.**

"**It did feel like I had indeed entered Paradise for a brief moment and then I returned back here only to feel like I was soaring across the sky with you flying next to me whilst we consumed one another in a flurry of passion, vampiric love and lust" I replied.**

"**Well we can do the same thing later as that seals the bond between us and if you thought that last night was good just wait until later. I will send waves of pleasure through you like you have never known before. I would not be surprised if you were to lose yourself in me and if that were to happen the only thing that you could do would be to scream out for more of me inside you and then I would of course finish you off in a manner that would make you beg me to do more to you until you came screaming again" Larten explained.**

"**It sounds like I will have an amazing night with you in here and I know how good you are because of what you did to me on our mateship night and last night was phenomenal I could not ask for anything better although I did ask for more because I wanted more of that sensation" I explained.**

"**I will give you as much as you ask me for as it is good for me too but of course my sensations are different to yours and besides my job is to give you pleasure, you do not need to worry about satisfying me as when I give you pleasure I get satisfaction from you screaming as it means that I have done my job properly" Larten said.**

"**I am scared that I am not giving you enough though because the height of your orgasm cannot be as good as mine is and that is not fair because you do all the work" I said.**

"**Do not worry about it my love. The whole point of this ritual is me showing you what I can do and it is also about you having a good time to reinforce and strengthen our bond" Larten replied.**

"**Alright then if that is OK with you. Of course I do not mind but can you please make the sensation that I get last as long as possible? I love it so much" I asked.**

"**I can certainly try to make it last longer before it fades and I have to start again" Larten said.**

"**Thank you I appreciate it as it is so damn good. When that feeling hits me and I scream out your name I get such a buzz and the release afterwards is indescribable, it is like you can satisfy me and I will not need it again for a while as it lasts so long. You truly are a wonder and you are so good at what you do that it makes me love you more each time that you do it to me" I explained.**

"**I am glad that I can keep you happy, I only hope that our fellow clan members do not get too disturbed by your screams for more" Larten replied.**

"**Well I cannot help myself and besides they know that this is traditional so it is not as though we are being deliberately annoying is it?" I replied.**

"**Yes I guess so. I am pretty tired but I have enough energy to last me through the night" Larten responded.**

"**Good because I need to make sure that our ritual is completed" I said.**

"**I agree. Have you any idea what the time is?" Larten asked me.**

"**None at all I am afraid but it is night time at least and that is about all I know. Why did you ask?" I asked.**

"**Only because I want to hunt and feed to restore my energy before tonight but we can only leave our room at certain periods of time and that is why I asked" Larten explained. **

"**Oh right I understand" I replied.**

"**I do not think that anybody would mind if we bent the rules a little. I am dying to feed again although I fed recently. You must feed too as part of the ritual is that we share a feed as a symbol of trust" Larten explained.**

"**Well there are not many humans around here and after the last feed that ended with you in a jail cell we will have to be very careful Larten" I replied.**

"**Yes I apologise for that but it was a total accident and I am lucky that we got off lightly" Larten replied. **

"**Yes we were very lucky. It is rare but it happens that we get caught whilst feeding and we will have to go to another town to feed as if we return to that one we will be caught and hunted or worse" I said firmly.**

"**You are sounding more like me all the time. I have to sometimes think to myself what to say next because you say what I would have said" Larten replied.**

"**Well that is what happens when you know somebody as well as what we know each other" I said.**

"**Yes and we have been together for a long time, it must be going on fifteen years or it seems that long" Larten said.**

"**Well we met in 2011 when I was twenty one and now I am a lot older but I do not look like it, I lost track of my age but I must be in my thirties by now, I mean all of the Cirque Du Freak performers have grown up and they were teenagers or children when I knew them and Jodie is all grown up now too and she has settled into her life as a vampiress quite well" I explained. **

"**Well you must be at least thirty five but you look like you are twenty five because of the vampire blood in your veins" Larten said. **

"**I figured that out for myself, I cannot believe how long it has been. I mean we travelled the world with the Cirque Du Freak for ages; the UK was the best although the theatres that we performed in were not always in the best of conditions. We have been in the mountain for a long time and maybe we should leave and return to the Cirque Du Freak as I miss them awfully and I love performing" I explained.**

"**Well yes I think that Mr Tall could do with us in the line-up, he has had low ratings recently and if we go back then the ratings might improve. There are so many new performers now that the show has a wide variety of people that perform on a nightly basis. I miss performing but Madam Octa is a bit old to perform so we will have to perform without her as she needs her rest" Larten replied.**

"**Oh alright then Larten I was always able to do a solo performance but with you it felt right" I said.**

"**Well we could do solo performances but what would I do without Madam Octa?" Larten asked.**

"**Well you could do some illusions with your speed or some kind of hypnotism act" I suggested.**

"**Yes I could, you could be my assistant on stage and show off the props and things, I could do an escape act and pull chains apart with my hands" Larten continued. **

"**Yes that would be so cool and the audience would not expect it, using your vampiric abilities for good and for entertainment" I said.**

"**Well we will ask Mr Tall about it but he should be fine as he always likes his acts to come up with new material to enthral the audience" Larten said.**

"**Yes alright I am looking forward to it but we need to finish off our ritual and feed first" I replied.**


	2. Chapter 2 Lartens Visit

**Chapter 2 Larten's visit**

**After I came home from school that day I fixed myself and my brother some food and then I went upstairs to watch the television. We had a television downstairs but to avoid arguing with my brother over the remote control I had my own television. I guess that many people can relate to this, nearly everyone I know argues with their siblings over the television remote and if it is not the television remote it is the PlayStation 2 controller. **

**I secretly hoped that Mr Crepsley and I would see each other before the show, I hardly knew him but already I missed his company and his eyes. I was transfixed by his eyes; deeper than the ocean and blue like a sapphire, I could not help but gaze into them as it was like hypnosis. I could still move and think although I had no desire to move or think when he was around me. **

**I heard a knocking at my window that evening and sure enough it was Mr Crepsley who was knocking on my window. I let him in at once for it was cold and it was raining outside. Mr Crepsley took off his travelling cloak and sat down in my swivel chair that was next to my bed and my computer desk. I was sitting up in bed watching a re-run of South Park when he arrived. I switched my television off and then we started talking.**

"**So how have you been Mr Crepsley? Is everything ok with you?" I asked.**

"**Things are good, I have been practicing my act for the circus and I have been keeping an eye on things, to make sure that you are safe" Mr Crepsley replied.**

"**Thank you Mr Crepsley. This may sound crazy to you but from the moment I met you I have not been able to stop thinking about you, your eyes have me transfixed" I said.**

"**That is often the way, ladies fall at my feet wherever I go. I do not brag but they cannot resist me and you are no exception I see and you may call me Larten if you wish" Larten said.**

"**It is true that I am no exception Larten, I want you to hold me close to you for some unfathomable reason, I want to kiss you too, though that makes no sense as I have never done it before and we barely know each other. I mean why are you here?" I blurted out without thinking about it.**

"**I am here because I thought that you would like to see me. I saw the look in your eyes when you looked at me. I know that you like me though you barely know me and as for the other thing which you spoke of that can be arranged. However you must not get too attached to me, you may not always be able to be with me and I may have to leave for long periods of time and not return until my business is complete" Larten explained.**

"**Very well, I guess that is how it is for a circus performer, always moving around and never stopping in one place for too long. I see why I cannot get attached to you" I answered.**

"**There is one way that we could be together however it requires a major sacrifice on your part. You could join me as my assistant and leave this life behind in exchange for a new one. I would be responsible for your care as your mentor. How about it Sarah? Would you like to be my assistant?" Larten asked me.**

"**Let me get back to you on that one" I said in response.**

**At this point Larten took off his shirt, shoes and his socks then he got into my bed, we faced each other and looked into each other's eyes. I only had a single bed so I squeezed up next to the wall and then I felt Larten's body pressed up against mine, his bare chest against my night dress. Larten had his arm around me and we were facing each other side on, I could feel his body heat and his breathing, I felt very tingly inside. Our heads inched closer together until Larten was almost on top of me, he was supporting himself and he was holding my weight as well. **

**We lay there together; I think that I must have fallen asleep in his arms because when I opened my eyes he was still there holding me close to him. I felt warm and safe, I had no need of a blanket as Larten's cloak covered us both over, I put my arm out and touched him; it was nice to have skin to skin contact. Then came the moment I had been waiting for, I tilted my head slightly to rest it on Larten's chest and he came in and kissed me as I came forward. I was quite unprepared for this but he took it slowly and soon his tongue was pulsing in my mouth and mine was doing the same in his. It felt amazing, deep and full of lust but soft enough so I wasn't overwhelmed.**

**Larten didn't just kiss me, he held me and he had his hand on my skin the whole time. After a while we stopped kissing and we just held each other, I was looking deeply into his eyes and he was looking into mine with just as much intent. **

**I soon went back to sleep and when I awoke again it was morning and Larten was still there holding me close, like I was some precious item that was worthy of his protection. Larten must have felt me move because at that moment he too arose and saw the sunlight streaming through my window.**

"**It looks like I am stuck here until sunset so shall we make the most of our time together?" Larten asked me. **

"**Is it wise to make the most of it? We hardly know each other and I am a real lady. I have never been with a man before in any sense until last night"**

**I said nervously.**

"**I would like to get to know you a bit better. You are right though, I should not have stayed over last night but as the sun has risen I am now stuck here until it sets again" Larten replied.**

"**Why are you stuck here until sunset Larten? By the way I have decided that I would like to be your assistant if that is OK with you still?" I asked.**

"**I am a vampire Sarah that is why I cannot face the sun and yes you can be my assistant if you want to be. I do not expect you to believe me about the vampire thing but I can prove it" Larten replied.**

"**Are you telling me that I have shared my bed with and had my first kiss with a vampire and now I can become one too?" I asked.**

"**Yes that is exactly what I am saying Sarah. Look at my scars on my fingers. All vampires have them Sarah when we are blooded" Larten explained as he held up his fingertips so that I could see the scars.**

"**It must be great to be a vampire. I have always wanted to meet one and now that I have met you I feel very lucky and privileged" I said then I continued;**

"**It sounds really exciting to be a vampire Larten"**

"**Being a vampire is a hard life Sarah. There are pros and cons. It is generally alright if you like to live rough or in a mountain" Larten replied.**

"**Alright Larten I understand. Can you make me a vampiress now please?" I asked again.**

"**I should warn you that becoming a vampiress is rather painful. Are you sure about this? There can be no going back and it means that you will have to leave this life behind forever if I do this to you" Larten explained.**

"**I do not care Larten. My life is awful and I know that you will give me a much better life" I said.**

**Alright then Sarah if you are sure about this would you hold up your hands?" Larten asked so I held up my hands and I felt Larten dig his sharp nails into my own fingertips. I felt Larten press his own bleeding fingers up against mine whilst the blood was transferred from him to me and back again through the wounds on our fingers.**

**I felt this strange tingling pain all up my arms, it lasted until Larten broke free and then he healed his wounds by sucking his fingers before he did the same to my own wounds. **

**I knew that I was no longer a human being, I didn't care this was my dream and it had finally come true. Then Larten spoke;**

"**How was that Sarah? Are you alright?" Larten asked.**

"**I am Ok I think Larten but that hurt like a bitch" I complained.**

"**I know it hurts but it is over now and you my dear are a vampiress. After the show I will help you to fake your death so that you can take your place as my assistant now that you have been blooded.**

"**Alright then Larten but I do not just want to be your assistant. I want to be your girlfriend" I replied.**

"**I thought that would be the case. I have no problems with that if that is what you want Sarah" Larten replied then he smiled in a suggestive way.**

"**Well if that is the case you had better make me yours then" I said.**

"**What do you want me to do Sarah?" Larten asked.**

"**Prove to me that you want me" I said.**

"**Alright I shall prove it" Larten said. He moved like lightning, he held me close to him before he kissed me. It was deeper and more passionate than what it had been previously. I could feel Larten's tongue pulsing in my mouth and I loved it. **

"**Are we going to have sex?" I asked.**

"**Not unless you want to have sex" Larten replied.**

"**Well I did tell you to make me your own Larten and if I gave you my innocence then that would be OK I think" I said.**

"**Are you a virgin?" Larten asked.**

"**Of course I am a virgin. I told you that I have never been with a guy before you kissed me" I said.**

"**Well I can break you in if you wish but we should wait until the vampire blood has had time to kick in" Larten said.**

**Then Larten left to prepare for the show. He climbed out of my window and he kissed me before he vanished into the darkness in a red blur.**


	3. Chapter 3 the Freak Show

**Chapter 3 the Freak Show**

**The night of the freak show came and I went alone to watch it, I wanted to bring my friend Lizzie but she was busy. I was so looking forward to watching Larten's act, his spider sounded like no other spider that I had ever seen or heard of and I was right. **

**Madam Octa was Larten's spider, she was both extremely rare and very beautiful, her green striped legs and her mystic purple body made me envy her. **

**I watched Larten's part of the act with great anticipation, I think he saw me in the audience; I was on one of the middle rows in the centre. **

"**Ladies and gentlemen I present to you my act, Madam Octa and myself will be performing some tricks for your entertainment, do not clap or move until told to do so, any noise could cause danger or death, Madam Octa is both beautiful and lethal, one bite means certain death to that unfortunate party; you have been warned" Larten said. **

**Then the act began. Larten had the spider climb up him, swing down on a thread and then sway back and forth to a tune that he was playing on a flute. He had her sit at a table and she ate a meal and then Larten had the spider tap dance almost and do a few other tricks. I watched in utter awe as Madam Octa performed and Larten was not bad either, he did a few things as well but it was the spider's act really. **

**At the end of the performance there was lots of clapping and cheering, every single person loved it, I loved it and the rest of the show was brilliant, there was a man with two bellies, a boy who was half human, half snake, a pair of twins who were double jointed contortionists, a man who could play musical tunes on his ribs, a lady with teeth like steel, a man who could cut off his body parts in grow them back instantly and that was it. I bought some souvenirs and then I left, it was one of the best circuses that I had ever seen. **

**Larten must have seen me because I saw a flash of red and then he was in front of me. **

"**This is Madam Octa" Larten said as he held up the wooden cage for me to see.**

"**Madam Octa is beautiful, I love her and I am a big spider fan. The show was incredible, I loved the twins and your act, the others were great as well and I bought some souvenirs to remind me of the show" I said.**

"**I am glad you enjoyed the show, I saw you in the audience watching us and I knew that you would enjoy it so that is why I invited you. Have you felt anything yet?" Larten asked me.**

"**In answer to your question I did feel strangely hungry today and I was very tired but now I am ok, I can see better and I heard some noises that I had not heard before. I think that the blood you gave me has started to kick in" I replied.**

"**I thought that the blood would have started to kick in by now, it does not take long. Soon you will feed properly but for now drink this; it will keep you going until we feed together" Larten said and he handed me a bottle of red liquid.**

**I drank from it; it was fresh blood and still warm. I gagged to start with but then I got used to it and finished the bottle quickly. It made me feel alive, I felt very strange; I was buzzing like I had devoured a can of energy drink or something. **

"**How was that?" Larten asked me.**

"**Strange, now I feel a lot stronger and I feel like I have new energy waiting to be used" I replied.**

"**Good that is what you should feel after you have drunk blood that was why I gave it to you. You need to drink regularly or you will die, you will not need any more blood now for a month" Larten said as he held out his hands. **

**I took Larten's hands and he hoisted me above his head and on to his back. **

"**Hold on tight, this is going to be fun" Larten said and he started to jog, then he went into a flat out sprint and soon the whole countryside was going past in a blur, I held my breath and held on tight.**

"**Where are we?" I asked when Larten had stopped.**

"**We are at my home where you may live with me whilst the circus is in this town. After that you must return home. We will then fake your death and you will then join me at the vampire council" Larten explained to me as I got off of his back. Larten's home was little more than a hayloft that had been converted by himself. It had all the hay in it still but it had a table, two chairs, some basic shelves and a cupboard. The cupboard had the cutlery and crockery in it, the pots and pans were hanging up on rope that was attached to the rafters. There was also a small gas camping stove and a gas lantern. **

"**Welcome home, I appreciate it is not a house but it is good enough, here you will be warm and dry. Also you will be safe from enemies who would seek to have you as a trophy" Larten said. He then folded up his cloak and put it neatly by his bed which was a coffin filled with hay and a pillow.**

"**Well it is a nice hayloft, where is the farmer? Does he mind you setting up home here?" I asked.**

"**No, I have an arrangement with him, I do a few jobs for him and I keep the rabbits away and in return I can live here for as long as I need to." Larten replied.**

"**Oh right, fair enough, I guess you snare the rabbits and eat them so they do not eat the corn" I said**

"**That is exactly right, I do not just get rabbits though, pigeons and other vermin fall foul of the pot, I make game pie and a stew, or I do a roast on a spit" Larten said.**

"**Sounds like you can cook, I love meat, pie is my favourite but stew is great with thick bread or dumplings" I said.**

"**We will do just fine then, I enjoy cooking, I will teach you how to prepare stews and soups from what is around us. I will show you what plants you can eat and where to get nuts, seeds and berries whilst we are on the road" Larten said.**

"**That sounds like fun; I do not think that we will go hungry. Where do we get water from to wash with and to cook with?" I asked Larten.**

"**The farmer has kindly plumbed in a tap for me downstairs with clean water, he also buys some of the rabbits I catch, as a result I can buy some things in the local shop, and we can get eggs, bread and cheese, even milk if you wish" Larten explained.**

"**Well we seem to have it better than most people, where do I sleep? That coffin is not big enough for us both" I asked.**

**I will get you your own coffin or I will buy a bed, it has to be one of those foldable camping beds though, or we cannot take it with us. A sleeping bag would be good for you. You can get ones that are big enough for two people, for now though you may sleep in the coffin and I will sleep on that hay and I will make my cloak into a cover" Larten explained. **

"**You do not have to do that; I will sleep on the hay and use your cloak as a blanket if that is ok? You must not give up your bed for me though" I replied as I hung my coat up on a hook. **

"**As you wish, I will take the pillow out of my coffin and allow you to have it. I do not use it; it is just for the use of ladies. I prefer to sleep in a more primitive fashion" Larten said. **

"**Cool, thank you. I am so happy right now, but I am ravenous. What are you doing for our breakfast?" I asked.**

**I have a rabbit jointed in that pot and a partridge that can be roasted. I will make a meat medley with some wild fruits to make a jus and some nuts to have afterwards if you like" Larten offered.**

"**That would be great; I will go to the shop if its open and I will get some thick bread and some cream to add to the jus" I replied.**

"**The shop is a twenty four hour garage, take £5 and take this as well" Larten said as he handed me a rough £5 note and a scarf. **

"**It is not too cold is it?" I asked.**

"**It is minus three degrees out there, you will freeze. Wrap up warm I advise and do not be longer than you have to be" Larten instructed me.**

"**Very well, I thought vampires could take extreme cold and heat, I thought the blood makes us warm and we do not suffer as much" I said.**

"**That is true but not in your case as your vampiric blood has not had time to fully kick in yet. You will get stronger but the other advantages will take a while, however the blood you have consumed will speed things up, you should start feeling it in three days or so. Then the cold will no longer bother you and the heat will be no trouble at all for you. For now though follow my advice and wrap up warm." Larten told me as I wrapped the scarf around my neck.**

"**As you wish, I will not be long." I said as I left and ran through the field and down onto the track that lead to the shop. **

**I arrived in the shop, grabbed what I needed and went up to the counter, a fat woman with an apron on and tanned skin served me. I bought some cheese, thick bread, a box of stock cubes and some cream. I also got a pint of milk. **

"**£4.86 please" The fat woman whose name badge said Angela told me.**

"**Here you are, can I have a bag please?" I asked as I handed over the money.**

"**Certainly, that is fourteen pence change and your receipt, here is the bag, it is one of those strong ones" Angela said.**

"**Thanks a lot then, bye" I said as I left the shop and scurried back to the hay loft. Larten had been right about the cold, I was absolutely freezing by the time I got back. **

"**I got what you asked for and here is fourteen pence change. I got a couple of extra things so we can have lunch tomorrow" I explained.**

"**That is ok, you must be freezing and did my scarf serve you well?" Larten asked me as he put the food away in the cupboard.**

"**Yes, if nothing else my neck is warm. My fingers are freezing though; you were right about the cold. Thank you for letting me borrow your scarf; it was very kind of you to do so" I said.**

"**You are welcome, now the food is almost ready. Do you want to set the table or shall we eat vampire style?" Larten asked me.**

"**What is eating vampire style?" I asked curiously.**

"**Where we grab a spoon each or a fork and eat straight from the pot and we eat the meat with our hands rather than having it on a plate, it is more animalistic" Larten explained. **

"**That sounds fun, let us eat as you say vampire style, I hope I get enough to eat as I am so hungry" I said.**

"**You will get an equal share, I am not one to eat lots and deprive others" Larten said then he continued "it is ready now, let us eat" **

**At this point Larten took the pot off of the fire and we tucked in. The meat fell off of the bone as it was so tender and soon enough it was gone. All that was left were a few bones and an empty pot. **

"**That was really good, the sauce was lovely and the meat was cooked to perfection. I could get used to this" I said. **

"**I am glad you liked it, the food at the council will not be as good but it will keep you strong and satisfied" Larten said.**

**I took the pot and washed it up, I did the same with the forks and then I sat down in one of the chairs at the table, Larten joined me and we played cards until dawn, then we both curled up and I was soon dreaming of my life to come and how fun it would be now that I had Larten's blood in my veins. **

**The next evening I returned home and I started preparing to fake my death, my parents were due home so I had no choice but to leave Larten's side. I kissed him at the window and he kissed me back, then we parted. **

**I was scared about faking my own death but I knew that it was necessary if I wanted to spend my now extended life with Larten. I was excited at the prospect of the council; it would be nice to meet other vampires and other vampiresses. I would finally belong to the Clan and with someone like Larten looking out for me I would be safe and well looked after, I would also be loved which was the main thing.**


	4. Chapter 4 the Return of my Parents

**Chapter 4 the Return of my Parents**

**I was looking forward to my parents coming home as I had not seen them for a while and when you miss people as much as I missed my parents it was understandable that I wanted to make the most of it with them before I had to leave them behind forever. **

**I also had to ensure that my brother was going to be ok, I was a bit worried about leaving him behind but I left him a gift of my games consoles and games so that he had a way of remembering all the fun we had staying up all night long playing games on two player mode. **

**My brother had been with our grandparents when I had seen the show and when I had spent my night away from home so he had no idea about it and it had to stay that way, however I did give him his presents that I had bought him from the circus, a Tee-shirt, a badge and some candy spider webs. He loved the shirt that said "freaks rock" across the front and on it was a picture of a huge wolf with its fangs bared. **

**The badge said "I'm not a freak, I am misunderstood" It was written in red across the front. **

**When my brother asked me where they had come from I said that one of my friends had given them to me and that I thought they would suit him more than me. We shared the candy webs between us; they were like jelly with a candy floss spider in the middle of each one. They tasted of cherry and cola or orange and lemon. We had six of each so we split them up and scoffed them. **

**I got myself some stuff from the circus too, I also got a Tee-shirt and a badge but mine were different, I had Larten on my shirt and Madam Octa on the badge, the shirt said "Watch out, vampires are about." And wasn't that the truth! **

**When my parents returned home I was happy to see them, they had been away on a working holiday for two weeks and I had been left in charge. **

"**I'm glad to see the house in one piece still; you didn't hold a huge party and trash the place then? That is a relief" said my dad as I helped him with his rather large, tattered suitcase. **

"**Well the place is clean but it's still a bit messy, at least you washed up. Where is Sam?" My mum asked.**

"**Sam is at Granny's along with George and Rusty" I replied.**

**Sam was my brother and George and Rusty were our two rescued tom cats that we had found as kittens and hand reared. **

"**Why are the cats with my mother? Was there a problem?" My mum asked.**

"**Not at all, Sam wanted to take them and Gran wanted to see them so they went in the carrier case and down the road. I hope you do not mind" I explained.**

"**Not at all it's probably good for them to meet different people and different smells; at least they won't be under my feet when I am cleaning. What time will they be home Sarah?" my mum asked.**

"**Um, Sam said around six because he wants to watch The Simpsons but he is going to help Gran with the shopping first" I said.**

"**Oh that is nice, I will go and get the cats later then, right now we have some cleaning to do, at least you ate well. I can see the remnants of lasagne and chicken casserole" My mum replied.**

"**Well you did tell me to cook and you told me how to make these recipes, anyway, I will go and get the vacuum cleaner with the carpet washer attachments and then fill it up. The stains were made when Sam let the cats eat off of his plate on the floor and they made a mess. I told him not to but he would not listen to me" I explained.**

"**It is only a little mark; you won't need the vacuum for that, just a damp cloth and some Carpet Nurse" My mum said.**

**At this point I went into the kitchen and got the cloth and the Carpet Nurse out of the cleaning cupboard. I had cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen was fine except for a few plates that needed to be placed into the dishwasher. I would have done it already but there was already a full load in the dishwasher so I had to wait for the cycle to finish before it could be loaded up again. **

**It didn't take long and soon the house was clean and it looked like my parents hadn't been anywhere at all. I thought to myself that if I had to leave my parents behind then at least I could help out and do the best I could until it was time for me to fake my death and join Larten for good. **

**I was looking forward to the evening because Larten had promised me a visit and something special; I had no idea what it was. I hoped it would be another vial of blood or something like that. I was so thirsty it was stupid. **

**I could really feel my powers beginning to kick in now, I could see and hear things that I hadn't been able to before, my speed had increased and for some reason when I looked in the mirror my eyes flashed and they glowed red but only for a moment or two then they went back to normal. **

**I also wanted to hunt, I had an overwhelming urge to go outside at night, go into a field and bring down a deer and feed from it. I could also see in the dark far better than I could in the daylight, the light began to make my eyes hurt and soon I was tired in the daytime and awake at night. **

**When Larten arrived he had my gift, it was as I had thought a bottle of warm, freshly drained human blood. I drank it so fast that if not for my speed I would have choked. **

"**Thank you, you know that I needed that, I feel ok now. I had been feeling a bit tired" I said after I had licked my lips to get the last bit off. **

"**You are welcome; I could sense your thirst. I knew that you needed to feed even though you only fed two days ago, you have a high blood lust and that is not uncommon for newly blooded vampiresses it just means that you have to feed more frequently and you need to drink more when you do feed." Larten said to me, he climbed in to my room and then he sat on my bed next to me. I explained to him that my parents were back from holiday and that they were in the next room. **

"**That is no problem, we will not be stopping as I have come to take you out, and we are going to a great place that lots of vampires hang out at. It is called The Wild Grouse Tavern, have you heard of it?" Larten asked me. **

"**Yes I have but its miles away, I went there once and I met a nice guy there called Vanez Blaine. Do you know him Larten?" I asked.**

"**I do know him, he is one of us, he is the referee in the Games Room at the mountain and he is highly respected" Larten replied to me. **

"**Oh right, he was lovely, I went there because I was lost, there was a festival in the field down the road and I could not find my parents so he helped me out. I wonder if he will remember me, I was only twelve at the time, I am twenty one now" I explained. **

"**I am sure that he will remember you, he never forgets a face, what a surprise it will be if we bump into him again and he sees you with me" Larten said.**

"**I am ready when you are; I have my purse, my phone and my coat" I said and I hopped onto Larten's back once more and held on tightly to him like my life depended on it.**

**Larten leapt out of the window and soon we were on our way, the countryside was a blur and I could feel the wind whooshing past us as Larten continued his super-fast run which vampires call "Flitting". **


	5. Chapter 5 the Wild Grouse Tavern

**Chapter 5 the Wild Grouse Tavern**

**We arrived at the tavern and we walked inside. I hung my coat up on one of the hooks and we went into the bar area. It had changed a lot since I had last visited, the decor was different and so were the people behind the bar but the fire place was the same and so was the bar itself. **

"**Ah Larten, long time no see, it has been fifteen years since you last visited, last time you brought Arra and you drunk no less than four barrels of ale. I do hope you have not come to do the same as we are nearly out of ale and the vodka is running low as well." The man behind the bar said.**

"**Not tonight, I have brought someone with me though, she has been here before but only once and that was before I knew her." Larten said.**

"**Evening, my name is Sarah, I have been recently blooded, I could murder a drink and a meal and I have not eaten since lunch time." I said.**

"**Ok, we have fresh blood, ale, beer, lager, spirits and human beverages. Food wise we have standard pub grub and an a la carte menu." The man behind the bar said.**

"**Ok, I think I will have vodka and diet coke, a steak and kidney pie with vegetables and for dessert a large piece of chocolate fudge cake. I have a debit card to pay for it all." I said**

"**Very well the machine for cards is over here, how old are you?" The guy asked.**

"**I have just turned twenty one; I have ID if you need it." I said.**

"**That is fine, I am sure that Larten will vouch for you anyway." The guy behind the bar replied.**

"**I certainly do vouch for Sarah, she and I are what you might call bonded by blood." Larten said as we sat at a table. **

**The food came and I ate the lot, I was so hungry, the vodka wasn't bad either, though it was not a brand that I usually drunk. **

**Just then a man and a lady with cloaks on walked in to the bar and I looked up to see who they were, I did not recognise either of them but Larten did.**

"**Gavnur, it has been years, since we last spoke, who is the lady with you?"**

**Larten asked.**

"**This is Amira, my girlfriend of six months" Gavnur said and then he went on to ask;**

"**Who is the lady with you then Larten? After you and Arra you said there was no other lady for you, mind you all those years on the road cannot have helped you" **

"**I am Sarah and I am Larten's assistant. I am going to the Council to meet the other Clan members soon" I explained to Gavnur. **

"**Oh right are you half or fully blooded?" Gavnur asked me.**

"**I have no idea. Larten am I fully blooded?" I asked.**

"**No, you are half-blooded, but you will be a great vampiress, I have no doubt of that" Larten replied to me.**

"**So I am sort of like you then but female? That is so cool" I replied.**

"**Well not exactly but you have me inside you and we now have an unbreakable bond, no one can separate us as we share blood ties. That is why I knew that you needed blood; I could feel you calling me, asking me for it, though you did not know that you were doing it" Larten said to me.**

"**Oh right, is that why you came to me? Or were you coming anyway?" I asked.**

"**I promised you that I would come so I did, I knew you had a high blood lust so I gave you a feed as any responsible vampire should do" Larten said to me.**

"**That is fine I was just curious that is all" I responded. **

**I went and I explored the rest of the tavern, it was quite nice, it looked like a public house from the 1640's in style but it had a flat screen television, a dart board, a pool table and a skittle alley. The television was showing the sport round up. I guess it was there for the benefit of humans and twenty first century vampires who liked to be in touch with the world and its technology. **

**I had a great night out and when we were leaving who should turn up but Vanez Blaine and his three friends so we all stayed for a pint and a game of darts. **

**When I arrived back home it was only ten pm so I was able to get into bed and curl up with Larten for a while before I had to go to sleep. Larten took off his clothes and got into bed beside me, he held me and he kissed me and we were soon having a little bit of fun but not much, he touched me and I kissed him, then we curled up and I went to sleep but Larten stayed up and kept watch in case anything suspicious happened but everything was fine.**

**I woke up the next day with Larten gone but he had left me his cloak, it was still wrapped around me and the duvet cover was on the floor. The pillows too were on the floor and then I remembered that Larten had took them off of the bed so that my bed was more vampiric, vampires did not normally sleep with covers but instead prefer to curl up to each other and use their own clothing to keep warm. **

**I folded up Larten's cloak and I put it into my wardrobe, I folded it exactly how he did it and I made my bed. I then got up and I went off to school. It was my last day at school so I made the most of it and I said goodbye to all of my friends. I knew that I would never see them again after today so I gave them all a gift of a bar of chocolate. It didn't look strange because it was the last day of term before the summer holidays**.


	6. Chapter 6 The Start of Something Vampiri

**Chapter 6 the Start of Something Vampiric **

**I got home that day after school to find a note on the table that said my parents had gone to dinner and could I pick up my brother from our cousin's place down the street at eight pm.**

**I drunk the potion that Larten had told me to drink after my brother was at home playing on the computer. It tasted vile but it started to work within a few hours, I felt my whole body tingle and my mind was blank, I lay down and waited to go into a death like stillness, all my muscles were stiff as though rigamortis had set in and my heartbeat slowed to three beats a minute which is virtually undetectable. **

**Larten came for me at midnight and as agreed he threw me out of my bedroom window to make it look like I had fallen by accident so that there would not be any suspicions cast on my faked death, I had one of those big, old fashioned windows that slid upwards and it opened wide enough to fall from if you were not careful or if you leant out of it too far to look down onto the street. **

**The next few days were very strange, I was put into a black body bag and carted off to the mortuary in an ambulance, the mortician signed my death certificate as "accidental death by falling" and then I was taken to the funeral home and placed into my rather basic wooden coffin, I was a bit upset that my parents had opted for the budget package but it was only temporary-not that they knew that!**

**It was strange being a guest at my own funeral, I could hear the sobs and the general muffled crying of my mother, I felt awful but at least they played my favourite music and they buried me with my games console, they knew how much I loved playing it. I had a lot of flowers as well, even from people I did not know which was nice, the worst part was when they dropped my coffin in the grave rather than lowering it in, then I heard the thud of earth being dropped on the top of it-I was being buried alive and how strange it was!**

**Then all was silent and I had to task of waiting for Larten to come and dig me up and take me back to our hayloft home before we moved on to the mountains and then we would sit in the grand hall and listen to the Vampire Council who met once every twelve years to check who was alive, who was dead and then they would discuss any problems or any upcoming events or battles and then they would vote on the best course of action. **

**Scrape, scrape, scrape. I listened intently and then it came again, scrape, scrape, scrape, I realised that Larten was unearthing me and soon I would be free from the ground. BANG! My coffin lid had been lifted up and flung somewhere and there was Larten looking down at me, I really had been six feet under! **

"**What a lot of noise, did you have to make a racket like that? We do not want to draw attention to ourselves" I said.**

"**I had to rip the lid off, it was nailed on but I did not expect it to be that loud. It is normally less tight than that, your parents did not want you escaping" Larten laughed.**

"**Very funny, now get me out of this hole; death is sad it is not meant to be a humorous occasion" I said then I continued "I have just lost everything, my home, my family, my friends all sacrificed for you and this new life or should I say new death?" I asked.**

"**No, new life as you were never really dead, now up we go, you should walk the stiffness out of your legs whilst I fill in the hole" Larten said as he scooped me out of the hole and held me so tight that the life was being squeezed out of me. **

"**Um, you are crushing m-, me" I gasped. **

"**Sorry dear, just happy to hold you close to me again. I did not mean to crush you" Larten said as he let me walk off the stiffness in my legs and arms. It felt so good to be in the open air, the stale air had got to me, lucky I can hold my breath for a long time, any other human would have suffocated as I was in there for what seemed like twelve hours but it may have been less than that. **

**I was glad to get back to the hay loft, I needed a rest and some food, there probably had been a wake but of course I had not been there so I got none of the food and none of the drink and I needed blood, I was gagging for a drink of that ruby red liquid which Larten referred to as red mercury though why I do not know. **

"**What is for dinner? I am absolutely gagging for a meal and a feed" I asked.**

"**Spit roasted partridge with stock and there is blood in that cupboard, its fresh as I hunted before I dug you out as I knew that you would crave it" Larten replied.**

**I opened the cupboard and sure enough there was blood, a big flask full that was still warm. I drained it in seconds now my powers had fully kicked in and I felt so much better. Soon after that I was tucking in to spit roasted partridge and a rich stock that went great with bread. I loved it, there was nothing left over except the carcass which we put out for the fox. We had a fox that came every couple of nights for its dinner, we left it the bones and any leftovers so that they would not go to waste, we both disapproved of wasting food, even if was only bones.**

**I soon settled back into my life as a vampiress, I was glad that I had not been underground for long, I was scared of being discovered, I was lucky that Larten was an expert grave digger and filler, it looked the same as it did before I had been dug up, no one would have known that the grave was empty unless somebody had dug down and found the empty coffin, we made sure that it looked perfect before we left. **

**I was looking forward to travelling up to the mountains wherever they were, Larten had warned me about the long, arduous and often treacherous journey ahead of me and him, Larten had made the journey before but he had not stepped foot at the council for fifty years, I was absolutely petrified but I knew that it was my duty and my place to present myself to the Clan so that I could be judged as to whether I was going to be a vampiress of good standing or not. **

**The Trials of Death intrigued me also, Larten had told me about them but he did not want me to take them, he was scared of me dying or worse failing and then being executed as was the punishment for failing the Trials of Death.**


	7. Chapter 7 The Journey Begins

**Chapter 7 the Journey Begins**

**We decided to leave in three night's time, as then it would be a full moon and we could see more of our surroundings. I packed up a few essentials but for the most part we had to survive on what we found, it was part of the test. We had to go barefoot which was the worst part but my super toughened skin could take the punishment, anyway we would be going through fields mostly and grass is quite nice to walk on barefoot. **

**I packed up a lantern for each of us, and a torch, some basic food that would keep and our fold away camping pots. The rest we locked away in a safe so that it would not be stolen, I did wrap up warm, it was nearing winter and I had no desire of freezing to death, though Larten acted like a personal hot water bottle and kept me warm for the most part when we were sleeping in the hayloft.**

**We were ready to leave in advance in case of a sudden weather change, but lucky for us it stayed clear and the moon shone like a huge, round beacon that we could use to light our way and tell us where to go. **

**We caught a late train to our first stopover destination as it was quicker and it gave us a chance to sleep in safety. I loved going on trains, you can really stretch out in the First Class carriages. We had a dining cart as well which was great. Larten and I were the only ones on the train in First Class so we made the most of it, we curled up in one of the sleeping compartments and we stayed there until we had to change to another train.**

**I thought it was so good of Larten to travel like this, we were supposed to be walking but that would come later, it is the twenty first century after all and the train is meant for everybody human or vampire. **

**We got off in London; we then changed to the Euro star so that we could go to France to catch the Orient Express where we would begin the journey properly after we arrived at our new destination though I didn't know where that was. **

**I was surprised that Larten wanted to travel by train, neither one of us had a passport but being vampires we can sneak aboard and hide where nobody would see us, using our superior speed we could quite easily flit aboard and stay well hidden in the baggage compartments. **

**The Euro Star was a nice, pleasant journey. We went in the daylight as it was more conventional but we had the curtains in our compartment closed. I liked the fact that we could spend time together like this; one of the waitresses came round with the dining cart so we had a good meal, a top notch lunch in fact and it was included in the ticket price so it was a good deal. **

**The waitress looked at us a bit strangely to start with, but when we explained that we were tourists on our holidays she gave us a tour brochure and recommended a couple of great sights to visit, we thanked her and then she left to serve the other customers, oddly enough nobody checked to see if we had a passport they only checked our tickets so we were quite fortunate. **

**I had such a good time travelling, I enjoyed it a lot. I noticed that Larten and I had not been very close since we left the hay loft. I wondered why, I was dying to feed again and I was getting bored of not having any proper closeness with Larten so I asked him outright.**

"**Hey, um we have not done anything for ages; I mean that we have not really been too close recently. I am dying to feed again, when is our next hunting trip?"**

"**Well we can hunt later on, this train is full of blood, I thought that you would have had a feed already, as for the other thing I have had other things on my mind" Larten replied.**

"**Like what? I thought that I was important to you, I did not wish to feed alone in case I do it wrong, and as for us being together when was the last time you held me or kissed me?" I responded in an aggravated tone.**

"**Well I hold you every time we sleep, the other stuff is lax because I have been distracted, I will make it up to you though, I have something for you and I will break you in later if you want me to" Larten said as he handed me a wooden box that looked expensive.**

**I opened the box and inside was some kind of jewellery; it looked like some kind of brooch and a necklace. **

"**They are lovely, what are they? If you could break me in later that would be fine because you hold me at night so it cannot be much different can it?" I asked**

"**I have given you a brooch with my crest on it and a diamond necklace and as for breaking you in of course I will do it later for you I was waiting for you to ask me. All vampiresses have some kind of jewellery, it is tradition, and you deserve the best so I bought you the best" Larten explained as he put it on me, the brooch was used as a cloak pin so that my cloak would stay in place, before it was moving and slipping out of place which was both annoying and uncomfortable. I felt like a real vampiress now, I also felt very special, the diamonds in my necklace were worth a lot of money, it was not really a necklace but more of a band that fixed around my neck, it had three rows of diamonds set into platinum and a fastener at the back.**

**I knew that it must have cost at least twelve thousand pounds but I loved it. I wanted to know how Larten paid but it was rude to ask so I refrained from doing so. The brooch was also very nice; the pattern on it was a shield with lots of little decorative marks. It was too small to see the actual crest on it but I could make out an inscription that had Larten's name in it.**

**I was a bit worried that it was not safe to have such valuable pieces of jewellery on my person whilst I was travelling so I either had to hide them or find somewhere secure to store them. I did not really have a solution so I asked Larten what to do.**

"**You can put them in my safe deposit box; no one will get at it. I am a master of hiding things" Larten said.**

"**Oh right I did not know that you had one, that sounds like a good solution" I said in reply.**

**For some strange reason I looked at the scars on my fingers, they were tiny and hard to see but my enhanced sight made them visible. **

**I then sat down next to Larten who put his arm around me and pulled me close to him, soon I could feel his skin on my skin as he had linked up his hand to mine. **

**I turned to face him and to my surprise Larten lifted me up onto his lap and I wrapped my legs around his waist, then we kissed, it felt different than before, more energised and how I had missed it, it had been a long time since this had happened last and the best thing was being held and caressed by the guy that I loved, although I never admitted to it, it was obvious.**

**We stayed like this for ages; it was just us in our compartment so we had no one to disturb our vampiric time together. We started to get a bit more in to it. I could really feel every touch, every breath, every movement and that was what I had missed most. **

**We got under the covers that we had and I stripped down to my underwear, Larten ripped my underwear off of me which was a surprise but it felt good. What felt even better was when Larten went down between my legs and he let me feel him giving me a great sensation on my sensitive spot by licking it. **

**Then when he thought that I was ready he slipped inside me and he pulsed his manhood inside me for the first time. It hurt like hell but it had to be done and Larten seemed to know what he was doing. I trusted him to do it properly and when the pain had gone I felt a different sensation. This feeling was intense and it felt like my whole body was tingling, then it got better and it hit me. I could not control this sensation and I screamed out for more as it felt so good. I had waves of pleasure going through me and that were caused by Larten because he came inside me. **

**When we stopped it had only been thirty minutes but it felt a lot longer as we had done so much. **

"**I enjoyed that although it hurt like hell to start with. It felt good at the end though" I said. **

"**It will get better for you believe me. It hurt this time as it was your first experience but the next time will be different as it should not hurt as much. I will take it slowly with you until you are used to sex because I have no intention of hurting you" Larten replied.**

"**I enjoyed it at the end when that tingling sensation built up inside me. That felt good" I replied.**

"**That was because I made you come. The orgasm is always the best part of sex and as you get used to it and we start doing more moves it will get even better. Trust me I am an expert" Larten replied.**

"**Fair enough Larten I trust you. That has made me want to hunt because it has used a lot of my energy I need blood now" I said.**

"**Alright Sarah we will go and feed but we have to clean this up first" Larten said as he looked down at the blood stained and slashed sheets on the bed.**

"**It is a bit embarrassing and I am still bleeding Larten" I said.**

"**I will sort it out. You are bleeding quite badly, I did not expect it to be this much though" Larten replied.**

"**What can you do? I am quite sore and it hurts still" I asked.**

"**I can try and stop the bleeding but that is all. My spit heals wounds and stops bleeding. Please try not to get too excited this time" Larten said as he helped me to stand up. Larten knelt down and he had me standing over him as he caught the blood in his mouth and he licked me to try and stop the bleeding. It felt better afterwards and as a result the pain was not as bad. **

"**How is that now my dear?" Larten asked me.**

"**A lot better thank you. The bleeding has stopped I think but it still hurts a bit" I said.**

"**It will do my dear but that will settle down in a few hours. As a vampiress you have accelerated healing powers" Larten explained.**

"**What did you do to me anyway?" I asked.**

"**We had sex for the first time. I penetrated you and I came inside you and that is what made you come too" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right so I am not a virgin any longer. I enjoyed the end when I came screaming. I had heard about it but I never thought that it was actually possible to make a girl feel like that" I said.**

"**Believe me that was just a small taste of what you could feel and there are things that I can do to you that will make you beg me for more as it will be that good" Larten said.**

"**That sounds like fun" I said.**

"**Believe me it will be fun for us both when I am on top form" Larten said.**

**We cleaned up our compartment and then we went to hunt. The Euro Star train had an overnight stopover that was not scheduled because it broke down so we got off and we went through the fields and found a decent meal. **

**We feasted with a pair of campers who had been fishing and then we had a feed on the train when we got back. **

**I did not like the idea of feeding on the passengers but we had no choice, however Larten gave me my blood in a bottle and I had no idea who it had come from which made me feel not so guilty. **

**I hated feeding actively as in feeding off of a person's vein but I did not mind feeding passively which means not feeding from a person but rather drinking blood from a vat or from a flask instead. **

**When we returned to our compartment we were both tired and full, I had fed well and the fish that the campers had given us was fresh, we had a whole trout each and a few smaller fish that were fried in batter, the trout was roasted on an open fire in a metal tin with butter and herbs. **

**Being in the company of humans at the time we ate normally and not vampire style but none the less the food was great. **

"**Larten, where are we going after we get off of the Euro Star? This route you are taking is rather strange, we are in France now but what comes next?" I asked.**

"**Well after we go aboard the Orient Express we will travel on it for a week and then we will go on foot to the mountains and there we will meet with other Clan members then we will head to the Council. I cannot tell you what country yet in case spies or enemies are listening in; it is all one big top secret you see" Larten explained.**

"**So it is like James Bond but vampiric?" I whispered.**

"**Yes, I met Ian Fleming once, he was a lovely man" Larten told me.**

"**Oh right, lucky you, he died before I was even an egg cell" I replied.**

"**Yes it was 1944 when I was in America serving in the war, I did not want to but for conformity I joined up and served as a soldier in one of the tank regiments" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right, I am glad you made a contribution, I guess rationing was easy for you" I answered.**

"**Well I did get quite a lot of food, I could hunt you see, I made snares and all kinds of traps to catch things to eat. I even taught some of my fellow soldiers how to hunt and how to make bombs out of everyday objects" **

**Larten continued then I asked**

"**So did you play a big part? What rank were you?" **

"**I was a Lieutenant Commander but the war ended before I got promoted further, then I spent the next fifty years with the circus travelling and I went all over the world, then I met up with a few friends and then after that I met you, so that is it really" Larten explained. **

"**Sounds like an interesting life, I hope we get to travel the world. I would love to go on a cruise or to one of those holiday resorts, not a sunny one though" I laughed.**

"**We would burn to death if we went anywhere warm, Finland is ok and Iceland is quite a good haven for us, Sweden is not bad but Russia is the best place to go. We will go there I swear to you and we will live like the Royals do." Larten replied. **

**Larten then held me and he whispered something very naughty in my ear which made me get into a play fight with him, being vampires it was a lot rougher than a human play fight but it showed Larten that I was no push over.**

"**Be more polite next time" I said as I sat on Larten's lap after it was over.**

"**I am sorry I offended you I just think that you would enjoy that" Larten replied.**

"**Maybe but do not be so crude, it is not very nice and remember that I have no experience so you will have to be gentle with me" I said then I kissed him to show that there were no hard feelings between us. **

**We finally got underway, the Euro Star left four hours late so we missed our connection with the Orient Express, we had hoped to make the overnight crossing but we couldn't so we took the early morning train instead, we had to hide from this point on as if we were discovered without passports and visas we would be in deep trouble!**


	8. Chapter 8 The Disaster on the Orient Exp

**Chapter 8 the Disaster on the Orient Express**

**Things started off OK. We hopped aboard the train and took up a position in the baggage compartment. The first train had been boarded in the UK and we were lucky to get on it and stay on it but this was a very busy train with a lot of security personnel it was nothing like the Euro Star. **

**People were everywhere on the Orient Express and so was their luggage, we could hardly move as there was so little room in the baggage compartment where we had to hide. I sat on top of a wooden box and Larten moved a few things so that he could sit down also. It was a tight squeeze. **

**We were filthy and we had no clean clothing, in true vampire style we raided the kitchen carriage and grabbed enough food from the startled chefs to live on until we got off the train. **

**Taking food from the kitchens was not difficult, our speed made it seem like things were disappearing in a blur, it looked confusing, and one chef thought it was a ghost of a train passenger from the past but actually it was me darting in and out of the carriage until we had got enough food. **

**We waited until everyone was asleep before we raided the bar, we opened up the fridge and took out enough wine and ale to keep us going and I also grabbed a bottle of my favourite tipple which was vodka for good measure. **

**I did not mind being stuck in the baggage compartment, we used a cargo net as a hammock and we slept in that suspended off of the ground where there was more space. It was fun to sleep in the hammock because we could rock from side to side and it was relaxing to curl up and sleep in mid air with Larten's cloak draped over us both whilst we made out. **

**With my supreme balance I was able to perform a few tricks using the other cargo hoists; I could vault up them, swing from them and hang off of them or I could climb to the top and sit on a big wooden cargo box and poke my head out of the skylight. **

**One evening I poked my head out of the skylight and I saw the full moon. Whether it was my enhanced night vision or the angle I did not know but the moon looked huge and all of the stars looked much more than little white dots in the sky. It was the best night sky that I had seen since I had looked through my father's telescope all those long months ago. **

**Looking at the sunsets was also great, all of the colours seemed to come alive and I could really see every detail that a human would have missed. **

**The train came to a sudden halt and I was jerked forward, had I not been quick enough to grab the net I would have fallen a long way down.**

"**Maybe there is something on the tracks, or someone. It is not like a train to suddenly stop like that at the speed it was going, if it was a station they slow down gradually" Larten said.**

"**Should we investigate do you think?" I asked.**

"**No, it would give us away; it is probably a beer bottle or a suicidal human, nothing to fear my love" Larten said. **

"**Very well, can you pass me up some food? I am starving. Oh and give me that bottle down there please" I asked.**

"**Come down and get it, if you want it, you are my assistant not the other way around" Larten exclaimed.**

"**Ok then babe, watch out below" I said as I vaulted across onto a hoisted net and then I climbed down it until I could reach a rope which touched the ground. **

**I grabbed a couple of bread rolls and the bottle which contained my secret supply of milk and blood mixed up into some kind of milkshake. **

**I then vaulted back up into the hammock and ate well; I loved being suspended in the air. I hung upside down to eat; it was a trick that I had learned.**

"**Doing that you look like an ape, can you not eat like a lady?" Larten said.**

"**Yes but I like it this way; I am just practising my skills. You know how much I love to climb and explore" I responded.**

"**Yes I do but there is no need to do it all the time, if you are bored we can play cards. I brought a pack with me" Larten told me.**

"**Very well, let us play cribbage, I have a fold away board in my back pack" I replied as I effortlessly climbed back down to the ground. **

**We played cards and for a while it was cool; everything was fine until we heard something smash. The next thing I knew was that there seemed to be a lot of noise and screaming in the carriages. I went to investigate and that was my undoing…**

**I walked out of the baggage compartment to see some strange looking guys in rough clothing holding some humans hostage. **

"**What is going on? Who are you and what do you want?" I asked.**

"**We want the vampire girl and her mate to come with us." The guy replied. **

"**Right then, firstly there are no vampires you idiot and secondly if there were they would not go anywhere with you." I replied annoyed and scared for the humans' safety. **

**Just then Larten arrived and he stood behind me. **

"**So we meet again Damon, it has been years since we fought last and I beat you fair and square although I should have killed you." Larten said. **

"**Larten Crepsley well I never. Still taking human mates or is she another one of your poor, unfortunate mistakes?" Damon asked.**

"**I am Sarah, I am twenty one and I chose to be with Larten. What is all this about? Are you vampaneze or something?" I asked.**

"**Yes, I am vampaneze, the enemy of all vampires and the killer of several humans because they have to die in order to feed my blood lust."**

"**Let the humans go and I will come with you. Call it a trade if you like." I said bravely; then Larten cut in and he said;**

"**No Sarah, they will kill you for sure. Let me go with them I can fight, I can do things which you cannot so let me go." **

"**No, I want your mate; she is such a pretty thing." Damon said, then he grabbed hold of me and he put a knife to my throat before he jumped out of the smashed carriage window. Then he flitted somewhere whilst keeping a tight grip on me.**

**I was scared witless, I had just been abducted by a vampaneze. I thought that I was going to die; it was terrifying. Damon took me to a deserted town where he slipped into a back alley and then he went with me down a man hole cover into the slimy, putrid smelling, wet and cold sewers where rats were abundant and they were everywhere; you could not take a step without nearly tripping on one. I hated it in the sewer as anybody would but the rats did not bother me. **

**To my surprise Damon had turned a disused pipe into some kind of accommodation; he had set up home in there and it was not as bad as I had imagined however for all it is worth it did not stop the smell of sewage wafting in from all sides. **

**The smell could have overpowered a regular human so my enhanced sense of smell made it unbearable but after a while I got used to it; I just breathed through my mouth instead of my nose. **

"**In here my lovely this is where you stay" Damon said as he pointed to an adjoining tunnel. It was not too bad but I so missed my hayloft. **

"**Very well, how long am I here for? Only I cannot abide the smell of sewage" I asked.**

"**You stay until your ransom is paid; Larten will pay up if he loves you and if he doesn't well that is too bad for both of you because I will kill him and then kill you. Now shut up and let me think" Damon said; he sounded annoyed. **

**I sat down on the rough stool that had been provided for me and I cried; I missed Larten and to be away from him with my life at risk was awful. I hated it; every second without him seemed to take much longer to pass than normal. **

"**You, come here. You may wash and feed if you wish." Damon barked at me. I knew better than to refuse that offer. I washed using a bottle of water and a piece of material and I fed on a corpse that Damon had finished with; the blood was stale but it had not yet turned sour, sour blood is poisonous to vampires and vampaneze alike. **

"**Can I have some clean clothes please? These ones are filthy and they have holes in" I asked tentatively.**

"**Um, well I do not have much in the way of clothing but I may have something. Your request is reasonable enough. Wait here" Damon replied as he vanished down the tunnel. He returned about twenty minutes later with a clean t shirt and a pair of women's jeans, some clean underwear, socks and welly boots. **

"**Here, I hope they fit you" Damon said as he left me to change. **

"**Thank you Sir. The clothes fit me except the boots are a little big. They are fine and comfortable though" I said.**

"**Don't call me Sir; just call me Damon, everyone else does. You will be treated fairly but do not anger me or I may turn nasty. I want you to keep this place spotless and do not bother me unless it is necessary. Is that understood?" Damon said.**

"**Yes" I replied then I went back to my tunnel prison and fell asleep on the pile of blankets that I had made a bed out of; I only dreamed of one thing and that was to be reunited with Larten and to have him hold me once more. **

**The next time I awoke I saw Damon standing over me with a mop and a bucket. I guessed what he wanted me to do so I just got on with it. I did not even ask about breakfast I just worked until the place was clean; the slime levels were at their highest but never the less I got it off and by doing so the smell seemed to go a little. **

"**Not bad, not bad. I see you have worked hard. The smell is not as bad either and you got rid of the slime. I think you have earned this" Damon said and he put a small bowl on the floor.**

"**Thanks, I hope you are pleased with my work so far" I replied. I then sat down and ate the food in the bowl; it was a mixture of cereal with a little milk and a few slices of banana. **

"**Yum that is good stuff I miss human food" I said.**

"**I am glad you liked it; I am not really familiar with human food or vampire diets but I know that cereal is good for energy and bananas are just great" Damon said and then he continued;**

"**Lunch is in four hours, I want you to polish my furniture and could you also try and get rid of the rats? I like them but there are too many. Do not kill them; just get them to go into another tunnel"**

"**Very well I will do my best for you." I said and at that point Damon left and I got on with the tasks in hand.**

**Moving the rats was hard; they scurried everywhere but eventually they followed me into another part of the sewer annex where they were secured. They could go as they pleased but not into Damon's quarters. I polished all of the furniture using bees wax and a cloth. I also did a bit of painting to keep the place looking clean. If I had to be here then I figured that I should make the best of it. **

"**Lunch time, come here" Damon called.**

"**I am just coming" I replied. **

**Damon was sitting at his table and he had set it for me as well. I sat down and I was given a pot of what looked like rabbit stew, it was warm and meaty.**

"**Great stew, I am happy that I made it" Damon said.**

"**Yes, it is good food. You should have been a chef as you have talent" I replied.**

"**Thanks, no one has said that but it is true. I do not regret my choices in life but I regret not making better ones" Damon said.**

"**For a vampaneze you are a nice one, I thought that you were all evil but you are not, you are a good one. I miss Larten though" I said.**

"**Well Larten was wise enough to pay up so you will be free soon enough" Damon said then he added**

"**That is if you do all of your work here and don't complain"**

"**Very well, I just miss him so much I cannot wait to be with him again" I said. **

"**Why did you abduct me in the first place if you are going to let me go so soon? Would it not make your clan look weak to take me and then let me live? Although I am grateful I am thinking about you" I said interested in Damon's reply.**

"**You have a good point there missy but I am not like them, I needed money desperately so I had no other options. I knew that Larten would pay and why should I harm you? You have done nothing to me other than your blood is different to mine" Damon replied.**

"**Larten will surely kill you though. He will not let a vampaneze live at the best of times but abducting his mate is going to really piss him off" I explained but Damon did not reply; instead he just sat down and wrote a letter. I kept quiet out of respect but I knew that he was scared witless. **

"**Please give this to Larten when you see him again and can you post this for me as well?" Damon asked.**

"**Yes certainly, I will not ask you what it contains" I replied.**

"**This letter is to Larten apologising for my shameful conduct and this one is to my lawyer, it is my last will and testament" Damon responded; then he vanished in a blur. **

**I was counting down the hours until I would be with Larten again. I could not bear it; it was so hard because he was on my mind all of the time. I tried to reach him telepathically but it was to no avail as my mind was not strong enough. I knew that he was tracking me down; I could sense him getting closer to me. **

**Then about four hours later Damon returned in a blur and a few moments later another bigger blur came into focus; it was a red blur and that meant only one thing…Larten!**

**I leapt up and almost fell down again as I had moved so fast but I ran towards the blur and as I got closer the blur came into focus and then with an almighty crash I ran straight into Larten's arms; the force of which nearly made us both topple over onto the ground and on top of each other but luckily Larten had scooped me up with such speed that we didn't topple over in fact we stopped still. **

**Larten spun me around and held me so tight it was like being squeezed; it is lucky that my ribs were so strong! Then Larten put me down and he held me close to him from behind so his arms were around my waist basically. **

"**I have missed you so badly it has been unbearable" I said as I clutched Larten's hands tightly, even for a vampiress. **

"**I know but the price was so high, I had no choice but to give up all of our savings. We are now destitute" Larten said.**

"**Money comes and goes but you cannot put a price on love" I replied as I kissed Larten for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime. I was still a lot shorter than him so I had to vault up into the air in order to reach him. Sometimes if I was feeling really vampish I would do a hand stand on his shoulders and kiss him that way as it was more entertaining. It was not hard with my balance but was not recommended for humans as they do not have the strength or the grip to hold on or the balance to be able to handstand on someone's shoulders. **

**After we had kissed Larten handed over the money and we flit out of the tunnel. I was glad to be out in the fresh air but Larten just wanted to get me as far away from there as possible. **

**We caught a night bus to our next destination and we travelled on to a city of bright lights and traffic. I had missed this twenty first century life; I had missed electric and fast food joints. **

**Larten took me down a deserted alley where he vaulted up a pipe onto a balcony. I followed him and I waited for him to break into the balcony doors so that we could take up residence in the condemned hotel. It had a pest control notice on the door so we expected rats and what we got were cockroaches instead! We got out of there as it was not what we wanted.**

"**Can we not stay in a proper hotel with proper facilities? I need a wash and a change of clothes." I asked.**

"**We have no money, how would we pay the bill?" Larten said.**

"**I have a credit card that I keep for emergencies. I have not used it as I am supposed to be dead but my parents did not know I had it so the account may still be active" I said.**

"**Well it is not the vampire way but on this occasion we have to improvise. I guess we can try it as it is not against vampire law" Larten said.**

"**Ok then where do you wish to stay?" I asked.**

"**I think somewhere with a suite, a shower and room service" Larten replied. **

"**Well there is the City Grand Hotel down that road and there is the Hilton about a ten minute flit away. Or we could try the bed and breakfast" I explained.**

"**The City Grand Hotel sounds great. I think it is four stars but let us both go and find out" Larten said as we walked around the corner and toward the big neon sign that had the hotel name on it.**


	9. Chapter 9 The City Grand Hotel

**Chapter 9 the City Grand Hotel**

**We arrived in the hotel lobby and we walked up to the man on the desk.**

"**My husband and I would like an en suite room for a week please." I said.**

"**What name is it please?" the man asked.**

"**It is Mr and Mrs Crepsley" I said.**

"**Ok, do you have a reservation?" the man asked.**

"**No, we did not think to book it. Sorry" I replied.**

"**That is not a problem, it is ninety five pounds a night excluding VAT but you get dinner included" The guy explained.**

"**That is fine, here is my card. You can put it all on that" I said as I handed over my bank credit card. **

"**That has gone through, here is your receipt. Follow me please to room number 212." The guy said and we left the lobby and we went up to room number 212 on the third floor. **

**We walked in to room 212 and it was huge. We had a balcony, an en suite bathroom and a lounge type area and the best thing of all was the real four poster bed with the mini bar right next to it.**

**The guy left us to it and as soon as he had gone I took off my filthy clothes and put them in the bath to soak whilst I had a shower. I had missed this so much. I gave my clothes a good scrub and then I dried them out by the radiator. Larten did the same and then he called down to room service for a dinner tray for us both. I was ravenous as neither of us had eaten much and I had not eaten since before I had got away from Damon's sewers. **

**Whilst Larten slept the next morning I went down to breakfast and then I went shopping for clothing. We only had limited items remaining and we were still miles away from the mountain. **

**Still keeping with tradition I bought basic items and I made sure that we had only what we needed and no more. I got back to the hotel around two pm to find that Larten was not in the room. I went downstairs and he was in the indoor swimming pool with a couple of other guests and a few kids. **

**Not wanting to miss out I got in as well and I swam a few lengths before I started playing water polo with a few teens that were my age. We had to give the impression of being normal guests so as not to arouse anyone's suspicions. **

**I went to the gymnasium also. I wanted to do a bit of training as I was weak by vampire standards. I lifted a few weights and I ran on the treadmill to get my muscle tone up. It was so much fun and I actually felt free for the first time in ages. Although I loved Larten dearly I did need to be myself sometimes. I missed my human life so much but I never admitted it. By staying in the hotel it gave me the opportunity to be normal almost and I did not have to worry about anything vampish for once. **

**The hotel was so relaxing and it was just what we needed before we finally made our journey to the mountains. I made full use of the complimentary gifts and room facilities because it was a change from cargo holds and haylofts; although I did love my hayloft home this hotel was so much better and I did not have to hunt for food either! **

**Larten and I went downstairs for dinner in the evening. The hotel had provided some entertainment so we went to keep up appearances. The entertainment was not bad either; the hotel had laid on a buffet and a jazz band then later on a DJ did a set and as it was all modern stuff I loved it. I had missed not listening to modern music and dancing. **

**Larten stayed in his seat to start with but I persuaded him to dance as everyone else was; we did look like an odd couple but nobody questioned us and if anybody asked I said that we were newlyweds on our honeymoon. **

**At the end of the DJ's set there was a general disco and we stayed for that. Afterwards we went to the bar and we spent a load of money that we did not really have. We did not care though; it was fun to party once in a while. **

**I got back into my suite at three am. Everyone else had gone to bed hours before hand but my biological clock told me to stay awake as I was nocturnal after all. **

**Also staying up all night gave us an excuse to sleep in the next day because people would think that we were tired after being up all night so it worked out quite nicely.**

**Larten and I slept in late the next day as we were exhausted. It was also a scorching hot day outside which is of course no good at all. I did get up but not until the afternoon and then I went straight into the gymnasium and then I went to put my name down on the list for a city tour later on that day. It sounded really fun to tour the city like a normal person in order to sightsee and take some photos on my phone which I had bought with me. **

**I then went back to bed as I was pretty tired but Larten was not there. I searched for him but he was nowhere to be found and then my phone went off, it was a text message badly spelt from Larten saying that he had flit to go for a feed and that he would bring me something back with him. It was still quite sunny outside but I guessed that Larten would have flit to someone's house to feed and then he would flit back before the sun could really do any damage to him. **

**Larten was impulsive but he was also wise so I trusted him like I had never trusted anyone before. I knew that he would never put himself or me in deliberate danger so I was ok with him going off to feed without me. **

**When he returned it was dinner time in the hotel. We of course went down to dinner as did everybody else. The dining room was large and open planned, there were all sorts of odd ornaments and portraits on the walls. Larten said to me that he recognised some of them but the others were a complete mystery to him. **

**Dinner was one of those buffets where you take a plate then go up and help yourself to whatever you fancy. I really loved having this amount of freedom and as for feeding Larten sorted that out no problem. We had a mini bar in our suite with a fridge so we used that to store our fresh blood in until we consumed it and nobody knew the difference because the bottle was labelled "vodka and cranberry" **

**Soon enough the week was over and we had to depart for the mountains which we did after dinner. We of course had to wait for the sun to set before we could move on to our real trek. **

**We packed our bags and we were soon on our way. I followed Larten to the foot of a hillside and then we had to go up and over it to get onto the track that would take us to the council. **

**It was summer but for some reason the path that we were on had remnants of snow on it. I thought that it was something to do with how high up we were above sea level. It was rather cold and the ground was rocky and uneven. Some of the rocks had ice on them which was hard to see. We knew that if a rock was dull it was ok but if it shined then it was covered in ice. **

**We walked for miles all through the night and for all that walking we could still see the town in the distance although our eyesight was enhanced. I do not think that a human could see as far as us. **

"**Larten how far do we have to go until we find a place to rest?" I asked as we walked.**

"**There is a cave about six miles from here. We can rest there until the sun has set again" Larten replied. **

"**Ok then is there any food in your pack? I have had all of mine. I did not pack much to start with" I asked.**

"**Sorry honey I have nothing but the cave is near a wood. We should be able to catch a rabbit or two in there" Larten responded. **

"**Oh right. Let us go" I said and we continued dodging the icy rocks and making our way to the cave. **

**I was excited because I had not been on a real adventure like this before. I did miss my friends but I had new vampire friends now and the place where we were going sounded great however I did miss my cosy hotel suite. **

**I was pretty cold that I could cope with but worse was to come…**


	10. Chapter 10 The Bear Attack

**Chapter 10 the Bear Attack**

**Larten and I had been walking for hours but eventually we arrived at the cave where we would rest. The cave had been hand carved out of the rock by vampires of old so it was in a good location. There was a wood full of animals that we could eat and a stream that had fresh spring water flowing through it; it was nothing like the pretend bottled stuff you get in the shops this was the real thing. **

"**I will make the bed up for us, could you go and fill up our flasks please? Go down the bottom by the pool as the water is better there and its deep enough to wash in." Larten asked.**

"**Yes alright. I will not be long but a wash sounds good. Anyway it is nice to swim." I said as I went back down the hillside and around the corner to the pool of water at the base of the stream. **

**The water was icy cold but refreshing and I am sure that the minerals in it would do my skin good. I submerged my head into the pool and I gave my hair a jolly good wash with some of Larten's shampoo mix which was made of a herb called soapwort. It was quite sweet smelling and it was good for insect repellent as well. Then I rubbed some fresh soapwort on my skin to use as a shower gel and I used a piece of cloth as a flannel. This was how vampires washed and the best thing about it was that it was 100% natural and harmless to the environment. I dried myself off with the one luxury I had which was a soft hotel towel which I had admittedly swiped from the room but they had hundreds anyway. I filled up one of the flasks and I was just about to fill up the other one when out of nowhere I heard a very loud growl. I turned around to see an enormous eight feet tall bear towering over me. The bear was standing on its hind legs and it looked angry. I quickly darted around it but it moved just as quick as I did and it was rabid. It had foam dripping from its mouth all over the rocks where it was standing. It also had blood on its fur so I knew that it had either killed or eaten or both. **

**I got a strong whiff of vampaneze which made me panic even more but right now getting away from the bear was my main concern. I had hoped that my superior speed would enable me to escape but unfortunately it did not help. The bear ran me down as fast as I was and it pounced upon me with tremendous force which knocked me to the ground and when it was on top of me it started to bite and claw at me. I screamed out loud and I begged that Larten had heard me for I thought that I was about to be devoured by this massive grizzly bear. I thought that I was about to die and what a way to die being eaten alive by a bear. **

**Just then with my last ounce of strength I saw a familiar flash of red coming towards me at such speed. It was Larten flitting to my aid before it was too late. I saw him leap up above the bear holding his sword and he landed on top of it and he killed it outright with a swing of his weapon. I think that I must have passed out from the blood loss because when I awoke I was in a dark place. I could not move and Larten was right beside me holding my hand. When my vision came back blurred though it was I saw that I was in the cave and I had been bandaged up. I felt extremely weak and I knew that I was lucky to be alive. **

"**How bad is it?" I asked.**

"**You have four broken ribs, you have a broken wrist and two of your vertebrae were smashed. You have lost a lot of blood but the vampire part of you has saved you. No human could withstand that. You cannot move but you will recover. It will take weeks to heal however." Larten replied. **

"**Ok, how can we make the trip to the council? I cannot go if I cannot move." I responded. **

"**I got you here did I not? I will carry you to the council. It is acceptable given the circumstances. The Generals will understand." Larten explained.**

"**Generals?" I enquired.**

"**Yes vampire Generals are in charge. They organise things and keep the Clan in order. I am an ex General. I gave it up to join the circus." Larten explained.**

"**Oh right, that sounds interesting." I said.**

"**It is but now you must rest as I have to finish patching you up." Larten said. **

**Larten got some ointment out of his pack and he began to apply it to the wound that was on my back. It stung like crazy but I could feel it working as my back did not hurt as badly as it had done once the stinging had gone away. The wound was not deep but it covered a large area. Larten applied a wound patch with herbs in it, he wrapped it around and then he tied it in place. Some of my wounds had to be stitched up but only to stop any infection getting in. They were washed out and cleaned first. Larten used a clean sewing needle and some normal thread to do it. It was done neatly but with speed. Afterwards I just lay on my side and slept. I was very weak. **

**It must have been a few hours later that I awoke to the smell of rabbit stew and bread. I was ravenous but of course I could not sit up so I had to eat lying on my side like a Roman. It was hard but I managed it by skewering meat with a metal kebab stick and eating it that way. I could move a little but because of my shattered vertebrae it was agony to move. I had to keep my back straight so that they grew back in the right position or it could have caused no end off trouble later on. **

**I knew that vampires healed quicker than humans so that gave me hope but the blood loss was the worst thing. Larten had no choice but to pump me full of his own blood to save me. It made me a fully blooded vampire which was not meant to be done until I had grown up a bit more but it saved my life so for that I was grateful. **

**A few nights went by and Larten did everything for me. He hunted and he kept me warm and full which was the main thing. I could feel myself healing up slowly. My movement was pretty stiff and it was returning at a snail's pace. **

**I felt so helpless because I was totally reliant on Larten. I loved him to bits but I am sure that he did not want to run around after me all night long however I would have done the same for him if our places had been reversed. I could not wait to start moving around again as laying still for hours is very boring but at least I could play cards which got rid of some of the boredom. **

**Larten put together a stretcher made out of wood and animal skin which had been washed and sewn together. I could not walk so Larten carried me on the stretcher with some help from a fellow vampire who was also going to the council. I did not mind being carried but I felt bad and what would the Clan say to my arrival in such an injured state? **

**Larten had been right when he had said about me taking weeks to heal. I was coated in ointments and bandages but it helped. Modern medicine would have been better but there were no shops or chemists for miles so we made do with what we had on us. I was lucky that Larten knew about remedies and herbal cures because I would have died for sure if he had not have had the knowledge which he possessed. **

**We eventually arrived at the entrance to where the council was being held and three guards met us at the entrance. They helped Larten carry me down to the medical wing where there were more supplies that could help me and a medic who knew more than Larten as he had been trained as a doctor. **

"**What on Earth happened? You look like you have been in a major fight and come off worst" The medic said to me when I entered the wing. **

"**A bear came at me from nowhere, it was rabid and it attacked me badly. Lucky Larten heard me and he was able to save me and kill the bear but I nearly died" I said.**

"**Well he has done a sterling job of patching you up; given those circumstances I doubt I could have done much more. I will change the dressings and I will remove your stitches, I can also put a cast on your broken wrist but the ribs will have to heal on their own. As for your shattered vertebrae I cannot do much except remove the bone fragments to let the new ones grow" The medic replied. **

"**Very well, I am grateful and very fortunate to have survived. I hope it does not affect me long term" I replied.**

"**If you rest and heal properly then you should be fine but stay out of the Halls of Sport and the gym until you are properly healed. I will help you to walk again when the vertebrae have grown back" The medic explained. **

**The medic then proceeded to remove the bone fragments from my back wound. It hurt but I was ok. The vampire blood had made me strong and able to cope. Then my stitches were removed and my dressings were replaced. I found it hard to breathe because of my ribs but I managed it as best as I could. The cast on my wrist was quite primitive but it did the job of keeping my hand straight whilst the bone healed. **

**Larten came to visit me frequently. I loved it because he often brought his friends with him so they would all gather around me and play cards or tell stories to keep me entertained. Of course they brought me food and gifts as get well presents. I got a new dagger from Larten and a new cloak from somebody named Suki who was another vampiress. **

**I felt better but it was still hard for me to move. My back was agony as it was so stiff. I felt like somebody had inserted a wooden plank where my spine was supposed to be. I lost all of my flexibility and it would take a lot of exercise to regain my hyper mobility. I got good food and plenty of fresh blood however and that helped me to heal. **

**Six weeks passed by and by now I was up and about but I needed to use a back support to help keep me upright as standing up straight hurt a lot where my vertebrae had not finished forming. **

**Eventually after many weeks of exercise and sheer determination I was able to walk into the Main Entrance Hall and meet the Clan properly. I was permanently scarred and slightly disfigured but everybody in the Clan had scars and stories to tell about how they got them, I was no different. I was very self-conscious to start with but when I saw some of the other Clan members and heard their tales I felt like what happened to me was not that bad. **

**One man had been stabbed five times and he pulled through, another lady had lost her arm in a fierce battle but she still lived and it did not bother her in any way so my minor scarring was nothing even though it was permanent. I was glad that I did not lose any of my limbs to that rabid bear! **

**I made friends with people in the Clan quickly and because I was associated with Larten I was automatically respected although I had wished to earn the Clan's respect instead of being given it straight away because respect should be earned and not just given to anybody. **

**I was given a tour of the mountains where we were. We had a huge underground network and it had taken years to build. We had underground caverns and halls with enough space for the entire Clan to live quite happily. We also had caches of weapons and animals which we needed to provide food and protection from our enemies. As well as this we also had storage facilities so that each clan member had a secure vault to keep their treasured possessions in. **

**A vampire named Seba Nile who had been Larten's tutor was the Quartermaster at the mountain, his job was to make sure that everybody was happy and that everybody had a place to sleep and that their needs were catered for. **

**Seba showed us to our quarters. We had a room on the top floor because I wanted a good view, we obviously had no window but we had a small sky light which I could open and look out of. It had been strategically placed so that the sun could not come in to it but the fresh mountain air could. **

**The best thing about being at the mountains is the food. We get so much choice it is hard to make one sometimes. Everybody has different tastes so there is enough choice to please everyone. **

**I missed my human food so much. I was lucky that there was fresh bread baked daily so for breakfast I had sliced bread with hot mountain berries on top, they were juicy but quite acidic so I put a touch of honey with it to cut through the sharpness of the berries. Lunch was normally stew or thick soup which was either venison or a mix of game with a generous helping of thick bread. Dinner was either spit roasted meat or whatever you wished to cook for yourself as there were a few cans of things in storage but not many vampires went for canned food. **

**I had a good root in the store room and I found a few things that could make a great meal if they were used properly including some herbs and spices. I decided to make a chicken curry for Larten and I using what I found in the cupboard. **

**There was a jar labelled "Mixed spice" so I smelt it and it reminded me of garam masala and turmeric. I went to the chicken pen and I quickly dispatched two of the bigger ones to have enough meat as meat was the main ingredient. I looked around for some oil to make a marinade out of but as there was none I used water and I made a spicy paste to coat the chicken with. I found some fresh onions and garlic which I used and around two hours later a curry was simmering in a large pot over an open fire. **

**The smell wafted through the halls and soon all of the Clan wanted to know what was cooking. I made enough curry to share between Larten and I but not enough for the others so instead I made them something else out of lamb and a few herbs and they seemed happy with that as I could not leave them out of experiencing my cuisine. **

**I took the curry off of the fire and I served it up. It was quite spicy but it was good and it filled me up. **

"**I see your mother taught you how to cook well. I have taught you a bit but maybe you should teach me a few recipes" Larten suggested.**

"**I guess that would be fun. I brought a recipe book from home to use in case I ran out of ideas. I can teach you to read it if you want" I said.**

"**Very well, in return I will teach you how to speak to some of the older clan members and I will teach you about our ceremonies" Larten replied.**

"**Fair deal but I thought vampires all spoke English" I said surprised.**

"**We do all speak English but some of these vampires are from the medieval age when language was different. They speak old English that is what I meant" Larten explained. **

"**Oh right I understand. Very well, you have a deal. I will teach you to read my recipe book if you teach me how to communicate with some of the older Clan members" I said.**

"**Deal" Larten said and we shook on it.**

**I learnt my way around quite quickly. I had to use a stick to walk with as my back was still dodgy but the rest of my wounds had healed and now I had a few scars on my body instead of large, gaping wounds. **

**I met Larten in one of the deserted halls so that I could begin teaching him to read my book. I started at the beginning with the alphabet and I used pictures and I linked them to words so that Larten could associate the word to the picture. **

**Pretty soon Larten could read some of my basic recipes and he could read a short paragraph if I wrote it, I kept it simple and he picked it up well.**

**Then we started on writing and how to write the words that went with the pictures. **

**Soon it was my turn to learn and Larten taught me well. I picked up on words such as thy and thou and how they should be used. Then I learnt about the Festival of the Undead and how we should all celebrate it and what it represented. **

**A few weeks later Larten had learnt to read and write well enough to make the recipes in my book and he no longer needed the pictures and as for me I could now communicate with the Clan members in old English and in modern English which was a great help because it meant that I could understand the stories that they had told me and I now understood just what I had become a part of when I had been blooded on that fateful but extremely fun evening. **

**I liked the quarters that I had been given, they were rather large and they connected to the shower room which was really a cavern with two waterfalls flowing into a deep pool that flowed out of the holes in the wall so the water was always fresh but icy cold. In order to wash I had to plunge myself under the waterfall in the pool and swim around to get clean. It felt like going outside on a cold day in Finland without a coat on or any socks or shoes. I got used to it though and my super tough skin and extra warm blood made it not so bad but a human would probably get hypothermia if they went into water that cold, it was as cold as the Arctic in the winter but there was no way of heating the water efficiently so I had to put up with it. **

**At least I had warm, dry clothes to put on afterwards and a decent towel to use. All the other clan members had long strips of cloth or old clothing to dry off with; I was quite privileged in that sense.**


	11. Chapter 11 The Bars

**Chapter 11 the Bars**

**When I could walk without a stick and when I could stand up straight properly without it hurting me I decided to enter the Games Room and see what there was on offer. I saw a huge wooden contraption that looked like a set of monkey bars but instead of going across the bottom a woman was standing on top of it holding a long stick that looked odd. **

**I saw the woman hit the other woman with a stick and she fell off onto the hard stone floor but she got straight up and started cheering on her friend who was also aloft. **

**About ten minutes later only one woman was on top and the others had been knocked off. I was surprised but it looked like fun.**

"**I would like to have a go on this contraption" I said nervously.**

"**What on the Bars?" The woman asked me.**

"**Yes it looks like fun" I said.**

"**It is fun. Anyway what brings you to the mountain? Who are you?" The woman asked me.**

"**I am here with Larten. I have to be presented to the Vampire Council and my name is Sarah" I explained.**

"**What are you doing here with Larten? Do you not know who I am?" The woman asked.**

"**No I do not know who you are" I replied.**

"**My name is Arra Sails" Arra said to me with a fierce look in her eyes.**

"**I know who you are now. I have heard many tales about you Arra" I said smiling.**

"**Why are you here with Larten?" Arra asked me in an even fiercer voice. I could tell that she was not happy. **

"**Larten is my mate Arra. We love each other" I replied simply.**

"**Don't make me laugh. Larten would not go near a half blood like you when he can have me" Arra replied. **

"**Larten is the one who blooded me and brought me here. He saved my life and I am full blood not half-blood" I replied.**

"**Don't lie to me Sarah. I will ask him myself when I see him and if you have lied to me you will be sorry" Arra growled through gritted teeth.**

"**Oh there you are my love. I have been looking for you" Larten said as he appeared in the Halls of Sport.**

"**It has been a long time Larten. You have not changed at all but I have" Arra replied.**

"**Well it has been sixty years Arra. I am only six years older though physically. I can see that you and Sarah have met" Larten said as he looked up at Arra.**

"**About that Larten Sarah says she is your mate and that you have brought her here. Is it true?" Arra asked Larten.**

"**Of course it is true Arra. Sarah is indeed my new mate and I expect you to treat her with respect" Larten said sternly.**

"**So you were not lying then Sarah? I have not got time for this. Seeing you again Larten is hard enough after what you did to me but coming here with your new mate is unforgivable" Arra said.**

"**I came into the Halls of Sport to have some fun. I want to duel on the Bars Larten" I said. **

"**Absolutely not Sarah, there is no way that you would survive a duel upon the Bars" Larten said.**

"**Well you can train me and prepare me first Larten so that it makes the fight a fair one" I asked.**

"**You seriously want to duel on the Bars?" Arra asked me.**

"**Yes I do Arra" I retorted in a determined voice with the same determination showing on my face. **

"**It is Miss Sails to you and for the record you will talk to me with respect" Arra said angrily.**

"**Let us go back to the matter in hand over who I should duel" I replied. At this point Arra got a glint in her eyes.**

"**I hereby challenge you Sarah to a duel upon the Bars. Do you accept my challenge?" Arra called down from the Bars.**

"**You cannot be serious Arra you would kill Sarah for sure" Larten piped up.**

"**Once a challenge has been made it cannot be recanted Larten you know that" Arra replied.**

"**OK Arra I accept your challenge. If I win you will show me the necessary respect that I will earn by beating you and if you win which is likely I will give up my mateship. Then you can reinstate your mateship with Larten without any objection" I said. **

"**No Sarah I cannot let you risk your life like this" Larten said in response.**

"**The challenge has been accepted and your terms are acceptable Sarah. Sarah and I will duel but to be fair I will permit you to spend some time training first to make it more interesting for me. There would after all be no challenge in facing you now as it would be too easy for me and I love a challenge" Arra replied.**

"**Very well Miss Sails. Thank you for this and I am looking forward to it" I said.**

"**How can you look forward to being beaten to a pulp and having your skull cracked in half?" Arra asked laughing sarcastically.**

"**I am looking forward to wiping that smile off your face when I defeat you and earn your respect and it will be your skull that is cracked in half Arra" I replied with determination in my voice.**

"**We will see about that. Anyway I must go and inform my mate of this even though our term is nearly over I still have to show him the respect that he is due" Arra replied as she left the Halls of Sport with her head held high in a very snobbish manner. **

"**It was nice to meet you Miss Sails" I called out before Arra left.**

"**Sarah I meant to tell you about Arra. Arra is very snobbish and she looks down upon everybody because she still thinks of herself as a vampiress with high status. I will indeed prepare you for your duel against her but it will not be easy and you could be killed so this for you is an almighty challenge" Larten said. **

"**Well with you training me I will be OK. If I defeat Arra it will knock her down off of her high horse and I will earn her respect and if I lose then I will lose you if I do not lose my life first" then I continued "How arrogant and cocky can you be?" **

"**Arra is angry because I nearly became a Vampire Prince but I gave it all up and Arra has never forgiven me for ripping her of her high status as a Prince's mate or so she would have been if I had of stayed in the mountain. When I left Arra to join the Cirque Du Freak I offered her the chance to come with me but she refused so we split up. Although we still kept in contact and Arra visited me once but it did not go the way that she had hoped that it would. I was with someone else at the time and as a result of Arra catching me in a compromising position she returned to the mountain and we have not spoken until just now. That was a long time ago and Arra has never forgiven me for hurting her but had I known that she was coming to visit me I never would have gotten with someone else. That is all it is" Larten explained.**

"**So Arra still sees herself as having high status?" I asked.**

"**Yes and she has never stopped thinking like that and Arra hates me for what I did to her which is understandable but she has moved on and so have I. I was young and stupid and I paid the price for it but that is neither here nor there. We have work to do and after we have eaten I will begin to train you"**

**Larten replied.**

"**Ok Larten. Thank you for explaining the situation to me" I replied then we left the Halls of Sport to go and eat our pot full of rabbit stew and dumplings.**

**After we had eaten Larten began to train me on the Bars just as he said he would. Larten picked out a suitable staff for me and he taught me the rules before he let me go upon the Bars and practice. **

**I got the hang of it but it was not as easy as it looked. I learnt how to block a strike first of all and how to give one back but as for balancing and hopping from bar to bar that took a bit of time. **

**Eventually Larten and I had a sparring match so that I could see how to put it all together and duel. A sparring match is like a practice or a rehearsal before the real thing where little tweaks can be made in time.**

**I met Larten in the centre of the Bars and we knocked our staves together in salute and then it started. I hopped backwards and dodged a blow before I returned one which hit the target but that was about all I could manage. The combinations were too fast to watch and although Larten did not knock me off he showed me a thing or two in order to prepare me for my big duel against the undefeated champion Arra Sails. **

**My big night had arrived. I could not eat because I was that nervous about my duel but I had the support of Larten and all of his friends with the exception of Arra's mate Darryl who was on her side for obvious reasons. I was scared but I did not let it show. I had a new custom made staff which was light to hold and easy to use. It had been a gift from Seba who thought that the actual staves in the Halls of Sport were not that good so he went out of his way and he made me my very own staff with my name carved into it and everything which I was very impressed with. I believed that Larten had done me a favour by asking Seba to make it but I did not ask. **

**I entered the Halls of Sport and the whole clan were in there waiting for me. Arra had not yet arrived so that gave me a little bit of time to compose myself. I was wearing traditional duellists' clothes which had armour secretly stitched into the trousers and on the shirt so that I would have some protection because Arra hit hard and my bones were not so strong after the bear had attacked me. **

**It was not against the rules to use armour but it was not encouraged so I did not tell anybody about it. I had stitched in a couple of metal plates and a bit of flexible leather to act as extra padding on my ribs and on my back where my bones were weakest. **

**I sat down at a table and I had a drink whilst I waited for Arra to arrive. After a while Arra walked into the room followed by some kind of entourage of clan members who had been waiting out in the corridor for her to arrive. Arra wasted no time. She hopped up onto the Bars straight away and I had to join her up there. I was nervous but Larten was right there in the front watching me. **

**Some of the clan had made support banners. One of mine said "Crack her skull in Sarah" and one of Arra's said "Give 'er Hell up there!" I walked to the middle of the Bars and then as we knocked our staves together the referee shouted**

"**Begin" and that was it. I jumped back to a slightly higher bar and Arra came at me so fast I got a big side swipe but I retaliated with a combo of my own making. Then I leapt forward and over the top of Arra who was bent over slightly and as I leapt over her I swung my staff around in a wicked way that landed on her head. I had made a direct hit. Arra was dazed but she came at me again with no mercy hitting me with all of her might. I blocked and ducked before I really got stuck in. I was using the techniques that I had been shown but Arra kept on coming. After forty minutes we were still fighting hard, neither of us wished to surrender and neither of us would surrender. **

**Eventually I had an idea. It was going to be hard to do but if it worked I would win. I had to snap Arra's staff by jumping on it as the rules state that if your staff breaks the other player wins. I had to draw Arra close to me and I had to make her perform a move which would make her put her staff out so that I could jump onto it and snap it. It was a risky strategy but it had to be done because I was not going to win otherwise. **

**I tried everything to get Arra to put her staff in the right place but I think that she must have figured out what I was trying to do, she was after all a champion. **

**After another forty minutes of duelling (although to me it felt a lot longer than that!) Arra did something that was totally unexpected. Arra held her staff in the air and she called out the words;**

"**This match is a draw"**

**Upon hearing these words I was stunned as Arra had never called a draw before but she obviously saw that there was no shame in calling a draw after such a long fight. **

"**What happens now Arra? Do I have your respect?" I asked bravely.**

"**I called the draw because I can see your determination and you clearly have talent to stay upon the Bars this long. You have earned my respect Sarah and I will not renew my mateship with Larten because I love Darryl too much to hurt him" Arra explained.**

"**Ok that is fair enough. Now I am shattered so I am going to have a drink do you want to join me?" I asked.**

"**No I have duties to attend to but I will see you around" Arra said as she left the Halls of Sport.**

**Calling a draw traditionally meant that we had to schedule a rematch but that was fine by me. It also meant that I had learned a lot and that winning a duel on the Bars was not as easy as Arra had made it look in the past. **

**The crowd were entertained and the prospect of a rematch got them talking. Nobody knew what to expect from the rematch but it was going to be great! **

**I was shattered after my duel but it had loosened my muscles up and I had learned a few moves, however I did not believe that Arra had intended to teach me what she had taught me. I bumped into her a few nights later in one of the halls where food was served and as I was alone Arra came and sat with me which I thought was nice of her.**

"**Evening Sarah I hope you enjoyed our duel. I am surprised that you stood your ground against me. You did extremely well. I was quite impressed and there is no shame in calling a draw after such a fight" Arra said.**

"**Well thank you; I was only doing what I had been taught to do. I surprised myself actually and now we have our rematch to look forward to" I replied.**

"**Yes that's true. Is Larten being a good mate?" Arra asked.**

"**I have no complaints Miss Sails. Larten is an absolute star" We met on the street when Larten was handing out flyers for the Cirque Du Freak" I explained.**

"**Oh right. Did you watch the Cirque Du Freak?" Arra asked.**

"**Yes and I saw Madam Octa up close, she is such a beautiful spider Arra" I replied.**

"**I know she is. I have held her and she has spun a web over my mouth before" Arra said.**

"**Oh right, that must have been nice" I said.**

"**It was but I will not tell you what happened next" Arra smiled.**

"**I think that I can work it out anyway thank you Miss Sails" I replied.**

"**As you have my respect you can call me Arra if you wish" Arra said.**

"**That would be cool. Anyway as I was saying when I joined the Clan Larten helped me to fake my death and we lived in a hayloft before we came here for the Council. I have had such a great time here so far" I said.**

"**That is good. I am happy that you like it here as vampirism is forever and there is no going back now" Arra said.**

"**I know that. I could not leave Larten even if I wanted to. I love him too much Arra" I explained.**

"**What do you like most about Larten?" Arra asked me.**

"**It was his eyes that did it for me. I love Larten's blue eyes Arra and when he kissed me for the first time I fell for him at that moment" I explained. **

"**Where is your crest Sarah?" Arra asked me.**

"**Oh my necklace and brooch were sold for ransom when I was abducted by vampaneze and as a result I was in the sewers for weeks at the mercy of a vampaneze named Damien. Do you know anything about Damien Arra?" I asked.**

"**I have heard the name. I had a run in with Damien once before and a vicious fight took place between Damien and Larten. Larten should have killed him but he showed mercy instead so as not to spark a war because of the agreement between the Vampire Clan and the vampaneze" Arra explained.**

"**Oh right. Do you have any crests or mateship jewellery Arra?" I asked hoping to see it.**

"**I have two crests, the one that Larten gave me and Darryl's one. I have a mateship bracelet and a ring on my wedding finger which shows that I am in a mateship. You may borrow one of my pieces of jewellery if you wish until Larten can get you a replacement for the stuff that you sold for your ransom and since I have Darryl's bracelet I have no need of this" Arra explained.**

"**Thank you so much Arra" I replied as Arra passed me her bracelet that she had on her left wrist. I looked expensive. **

"**What is the story with this bracelet then Arra?" I asked.**

"**Larten gave it to me as a gift. It has his name engraved into it and as I am no longer his mate I think that you should wear it instead of me but I will want it back at some point. You can call it a long term loan" Arra explained.**

"**Again I say thank you so much Arra. You did not have to do this for me" I said.**

"**I know but you have to have something as it is tradition. I have to go now because it is my group's turn to hunt but I will see you soon no doubt" Arra said as she left.**

**The bracelet fit my wrist almost perfectly which was great and as a result of wearing it I felt a lot better because I had something with Larten's name engraved into it around my wrist. **

**I rushed off to tell Larten because I was very excited. I found him in the storage room looking for some new shoes.**

"**Hey honey, how are you?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am fine thank you my love and look what Arra gave me" I said as I flashed my borrowed bracelet. **

"**Arra let me borrow it until you can get me a replacement for the one you sold for my ransom" I explained.**

"**Did she now? Well I am most pleased and you can tell her from me that I owe her a favour for her kind act" Larten replied as he found what he was looking for.**

"**I will see you later then my love" I said as I left Larten to go exploring.**

**As a result of my explorations around the mountain I found myself in a hall where I joined Vancha and Seba in a game of chess. **

**I went to bed late that day. I had not been tired so I had stayed up to watch the chess match until it finished. When I did return to my quarters I curled up in my hammock and I slept under Larten's cloak as I always did. I had a bed and a coffin also but the hammock was my favourite thing as it swung and it was really cool sleeping whilst hanging in the air practically. **

**Larten of course joined me when he returned from his business and then we curled up together for the first time in a long time for Larten had been doing a lot of business recently which meant that he had not been coming to bed with me so it was nice to be next to him once more. I had missed Larten's touch and I had missed being enclosed in his arms whilst I slept. I dreamed of war and of blood like most vampires. I also dreamed about my friends and how much older they would be now as it had been a long time since I had been human but I had not aged at all. I think that I must have been on the road for a year or so but I had been in the hayloft for a lot longer than that. **

**I had no watch or clock so keeping track of time was hard. I had learned to read the stars to know what time of year it was as the mountains seemed to be season less. Days and nights all ran together and there was no specific time schedule for anyone. **

**We knew when the council meetings were because we were told but other than that we had to keep track of time by ourselves. I did not even know how long I had been on the road for as Larten and I had travelled for miles. **

**The hotel clock had helped me and so had the hotel calendar but it was hard to remember things like that as I was too preoccupied with my mountain duties and Larten's lessons. **

**With each new evening I found new things to do and enjoy. I organised the store rooms and I looked after the animals that we had. I also helped out any clan member who needed my assistance. I had to take care of Madam Octa also, I liked her a lot and I trained her a bit but my main task was to feed her and to keep her healthy. Looking after a spider was not that hard but Madam Octa's bite was lethal to anybody so I had to be careful about where and when I let her out of her wooden cage for some exercise. I am sure that she liked me but she was Larten's so I had to remember that. **

**I met Arra in one of the corridors and she was carrying a stag that she had brought back with her from her hunt.**

"**Hey Arra do you need help?" I asked.**

"**No I am fine thanks. This stag is light but it is awkward to balance on my shoulders that is all" Arra replied. **

"**By the way Larten told me to tell you that he owes you a favour for lending me your bracelet" I said.**

"**You can tell him that he can make it up to me later on tonight" Arra said.**

"**Alright I will pass the message on" I said.**

**Arra was covered in blood from the stag and her hair was a mess but other than that she looked like she had enjoyed her hunt. I was looking forward to going hunting when it was my turn but I doubted that I could bring down a stag like Arra had done. **

**One evening I went down into the storage rooms in the mountain to find some clean sheets for my bed but instead of finding sheets I found a whole hoard of vampaneze who had been hiding in there...**


	12. Chapter 12 War With the Vampaneze

**Chapter 12 War with the Vampaneze**

**It was just after sunset when I heard the news about the traitor Kurda Smalt and what he had done to the clan. Kurda Smalt was preparing for his investiture as a Vampire Prince but he had betrayed us by secretly being in league with our enemies and as a result of Kurda's treachery we were now at war with the vampaneze. **

**The vampaneze had invaded our mountain using a secret underground tunnel which had lead to the storage rooms where I stumbled across them by accident. **

**Kurda had made maps of the tunnels and he knew where they lead so it was easy for him to find a hidden entrance into the mountain where the vampaneze had entered by. Discovering the vampaneze hoard had not been part of the vampaneze's plan but it was just as well that I had found them and raised the alarm or they could have overrun the central part of our home. I now had no choice but to fight with the other clan members on the battle field to protect the clan and our mountain. **

**I quickly found Larten and a few other vampires; some already had blood on their swords where they had killed. I had my own weapons which I used and I also had a horse which I had been given as a welcome gift when I joined the clan. I had trained my horse to run far and at speed which would prove to be a great advantage on the field of battle. **

**Despite having a war horse I was petrified of going into battle. I had not had any training for war at all other than hand to hand combat and basic skills with a bladed weapon. I could not face it but as a clan member and as a hater of vampaneze I had to fight. **

**I found Larten who was already prepared for war in full armour and he had a long double edged sword in a scabbard by his side. I had to wear my Bars armour because I had no other stuff that would fit me. Everything was too big in the store room. I did however find a small shield that I could use and my horse had some armour that had been made for it. I should have been safe on a horse or at least safer but in war there are no guarantees about anybody or anything. **

**I was put near the side of the middle ranks and my job was to spot things and to relay messages back and forth. I was lucky that Larten was also in the middle ranks with Arra and Vancha as well as Gavnur and a few others who were good fighters. We were being kept back as reserves in case the front line faltered or failed in its duty to defeat the main vampaneze force or if it needed back up in any way. **

**I had the idea of putting metal points onto the ends of the Bars staves and making a wall of spears to stop the vampaneze from advancing. We had no metal points but we tied daggers on the end instead, they were longer and stronger anyway. It took a while to prepare, we needed to create a diversion and that is where Madam Octa and the cave came into play. **

**There was a large cave that was separated from the main hall by a few yards. Larten's plan was to drive the vampaneze in there where they would be trapped and send in Madam Octa and her offspring which numbered the low thousands. The spider lings were as deadly as their mother but they had their father's markings and they were small enough not to be seen before they could bite and release their deadly toxins. **

**The plan worked like a charm but disaster struck and we lost a few vampires in the cave as there was not much room to manoeuvre in there. The main force remained intact and our spear wall worked well until the leader of the vampaneze got through it and went into the cave. **

**We were still fighting viciously and there were dead vampaneze everywhere. I thought that we were close to victory and we were but we paid a high price for our eventual win. I had let somebody else use my horse because I could not enter the cave where the main fight was taking place whilst I was riding it. I was needed to fight on the ground, my horse was used by another vampiress called Anna who used it to relay messages, and she also used it to transport injured vampires to the medical wing. My horse turned out to be very useful. **

**Arra had been in the cave holding her own and fighting like a demon and she had slain many vampaneze who crossed her until the leader himself Glalda took her on and there she fell victim to his blade. The wound was deep but Arra held on to life for ages and I thought that she was going to survive but alas it was not to be and she passed away into vampire Paradise in the medical wing with Larten at her side. I heard what Arra said to Larten and I was seething with anger but I forgave her as she was dying. This is what Arra said to Larten that made me angry;**

"**Larten please look after Darren. Do not let them kill him and please take care of Sarah as you took care of me when we were mates. I would ask you to kiss me one last time but I am in no shape for it..." and to that Larten had replied;**

"**There will be plenty of time for kissing later but you must get well first" **

**This comment by Larten had made me cross but I understood and I would ask him to explain his actions later when I had calmed down. **

**After a few hours of fighting for her life Arra no longer had the strength to hold on any longer so she let go and she died.**

**Back in the cave the battle was raging and it was getting more violent. Blood was everywhere; corpses littered the cave although most were the enemy and all around me I heard the clashing of swords and the cries of the wounded who were trapped. I swore revenge in Arra's name so I very boldly took Glalda on as Arra had done. Larten saw what I was doing and he darted over to be my back up but he need not of worried because I struck him in his ribs with my dagger and he fell down to the ground. I then sliced his head off and put it on a spear to have as a trophy. I retrieved my dagger from his headless corpse and then the vampaneze who could escape got out of the cave and they all flitted but we chased them down and killed them. **

**The injured vampaneze and their leaders were held in the dungeons for execution or release depending on their sentencing that would be given in due course. **

**We had been victorious but at a cost. Arra had died and Vancha had a deep wound on his arm but Larten was unscathed and I had not been hurt that badly. I had a few scratches and a graze or two but nothing major and the others were ok. Even Madam Octa had survived being in the cave and as she had done her job so well we thought that we had to thank her for our victory as much as every other brave vampire and vampiress who had fought for us. **

**I was of course extremely sad to hear of Arra's passing but she had fought so bravely and with such courage that she had made some of the Generals almost envious of her skills on the battlefield. **

**It did however mean that we never got to have our rematch on the Bars so instead we left it as a draw and the score was carved onto the wall behind the Bars as:**

**Arra VS Sarah = Draw**

**RIVP Arra**

**The "RIVP Arra" was added afterwards as a mark of respect. RIVP stands for "Rest In Vampire Paradise" it's a vampiric way of saying rest in peace. **

**The whole clan mourned for a week after the battle as was the custom. We all missed our comrades and though I did not know them all personally I felt connected to them and I felt the Clan's pain at their passing. **

**Larten was inconsolable. Nobody dared to go near him or even speak to him whilst he was in this state of mourning. Larten took to looking after Darryl who had been badly wounded, he was often in the medical wing with him as they both shared a link to Arra and Larten felt that it was his duty to do what Arra would have wanted which was to make sure that Darryl was ok as he could do nothing for Arra now.**

**I visited and I took a pot full of fresh game stew and I shared it out with everyone in the medical wing who wanted some, some of the injured had broken jaws so they could not eat it. Instead I made soup and I took it to them when it was ready. **

**I popped in to see Darryl after I had handed out the soup to the patients as he was in his own room; everyone else had to share a dormitory type room. Darryl got his own room because he was in mourning and he wanted to be alone with the exception of myself and Larten. **

**We were allowed to visit Darryl as that was his wish and it helped him to deal with his loss. As we had all been connected to Arra having us around him was like having a part of Arra still with him. I was still scared of Larten. I think that he wished to be alone as well but he had duties to attend to and he was not one to show his emotion but one look into his eyes told me everything. I could see how deeply Arra's passing had hit him and I did not know what to do. **

**The battle and the death of Arra had hit me hard too but the Clan had supported me and because I had killed Glalda the Clan had more respect for me than what they had for me previously. I did not like what I did, I regretted it but I had no choice. I had to defend the clan and I had to avenge Arra for Larten's sake if nobody else's and he knew it deep down inside him. **

**However I think he would rather have killed Glalda himself. I had killed Glalda and I was not sure how Larten would react to it because he did not avenge Arra as he should have done. Darryl felt like he should have done it but as he was already being treated in the medical wing when Arra was brought in he did not get the chance to avenge her. Larten had been my back up during the fight with Glalda but I struck the fatal blow by sticking my dagger deep into Glalda's ribs, then I watched him collapse and I called him "Vampaneze scum" before I cut off his head. Then I left to finish off the stragglers and the enemies who were still on the field. I remember what I did and it stuck in my brain like superglue sticks broken china together. **

**I remembered how we had slaughtered the remaining enemy force. I recalled that we had chased the escapees until they were caught and killed, it did not matter how far away they had flitted. I also remembered how some of the vampire Generals had captured the Vampaneze Leaders to gain information that we could use in the future and I watched them being dragged away into the dungeons to be tortured and then executed. **

**I remained in the medical wing for treatment as after the battle my back had started to hurt. My vertebrae were clicking and it was painful when I walked so I went to get some physiotherapy which was a new treatment that had only recently started in the mountains. When I was better I plucked up the courage and I confronted Larten about his conversation with Arra on the night that she had died.**

"**Hey Larten, can I ask you something?" I asked.**

"**Of course you can my love. What is it that you wish to know?" Larten replied.**

"**Why did you say to Arra that you would kiss her when she was better after the battle?" I asked with fire in my eyes.**

"**You heard me say that Sarah? I was mixed up at the time and I was trying to make Arra feel better as she was dying that is all" Larten explained.**

"**So if Arra had not of died would you have kissed her?" I asked.**

"**I cannot answer that Sarah. I may have done if I am being honest but it would not have gone any further" Larten admitted.**

"**What would Darryl have said about that Larten? By saying that you have just proven to me that you love Arra more than me or you would not even think about being unfaithful to me" I said angrily.**

"**I am sorry. I did not mean to upset you my love I was not thinking at the time when I said what I said. Can you forgive me?" Larten asked.**

"**I guess that I can forgive you because of the circumstances but I was hurt by your words Larten and sometimes words can hurt more than a blade" I replied.**

"**Again I apologise for that. Can we forget it and move on from this unpleasantness?" Larten asked me.**

"**I think so we are both adults and old enough to make our own choices and I am choosing to let it go and get on with more important matters in life" I said.**

"**That is fair enough Sarah. I will come and see you later but I have duties now and so do you" Larten reminded me.**

**So we both left the hall where we were and we went our separate ways to complete our duties. I had to stretch before I did my jobs because my muscles were hurting.**

**I had to exercise regularly to keep the joints mobile but I also had to take it steady afterwards which meant that I could not fight and it meant no excessive game play or duelling until my back was fully healed. I was quite disappointed but I knew that it was for the best as I could not afford to get hurt again. **

**I had the task of organising Arra's funeral. It was horrible because I hated having to say goodbye but Larten was in no fit state to do it and Darryl was still too injured and upset to leave his room so I took it upon myself to organise it. I knew that Arra was not one for pomp and ceremony but I knew that she would want a good send off so I did my best to do what I think she would have approved of. **

**I organised the hall where she would be cremated as it was vampire tradition, I hung flowers up and I tried to make Arra look presentable as I had to prepare her body as well. I hated it and I was hurting but I had a job to do and I could feel some kind of presence where I was, I believed that it was Arra's restless soul waiting for her body to be burned so that she could enter Paradise. I washed and dressed Arra's corpse and I gave back the bracelet which I had borrowed from her and I put it on her wrist along with a few other items that she had loved like her personal staff which I placed beside her. I covered the pyre in flowers and she was surrounded by them as she loved flowers. **

**When all was prepared I sounded the mourning horn which is blown to let the clan know when a funeral is about to begin. It was a small affair but every able vampire paid their last respects and as it was tradition Larten and Darryl set the pyre alight before we all left to hold a celebration of life for Arra which was like a wake. It was meant to be a happy event to give thanks for her time in the clan. It was also a time to reminisce and tell stories and anecdotes about Arra so that everyone could share in something and show how much they cared in case she was watching them. **

**I was still worried about Larten for he had not been to our quarters and he had not spoken or eaten anything for a while. I guessed that he was mourning in his own way so I did not question him about it out of respect as it was not really my place to do so. **

**A few nights later I found Larten inside Arra's quarters sorting out her meagre possessions. Arra had not owned much and what she did have was what she had been given as gifts. I helped out by emptying the draws in her desk and I found two letters, one was for Larten and the other was for Darryl which I delivered. **

**The letter to Larten said:**

**My dear Larten,**

**If you cannot read this get somebody to read it to you. If you are reading this it means two things, one you can read and the other is that I am no longer around. I hope that my passing has not caused to too much pain and distress. Remember that I have given up my life for the clan which is an honour. I know how much you will miss me and I know what we meant to each other but you have Sarah now so I want you to take good care of her and to treat her in the same way that you treated me. I love you and that will never cease, I love Darryl too but not in the same way. I have left Sarah my jewellery and I have left her a set of instructions for duelling on the Bars so that she may learn a few combination moves. I have left you what is in my money bag, I hope it is enough to buy Sarah something to replace the necklace which you sold to release her when she was abducted. **

**I am at peace now but a part of me is inside you forever so we will never be apart. Please do not mourn for too long as I do not want you to be sad for me but instead be joyful and remember the good times when we had one barrel of ale too many and we awoke with sore heads.**

**Goodbye my dear friend**

**Arra **

**Larten read his letter and he smiled wryly although he was still in shock. Larten was not one to show his emotion but I could see that he was a lot better for reading his letter. I guess that by writing the letters to Larten and Darryl Arra had tried her best to help them heal and it had worked although it took time. I was still upset by the whole situation but Darryl was the worst. He obviously found it hard to cope with the loss of his beloved Arra but slowly he returned to normal and a few months later he found himself a new girlfriend. She was a human when he met her but that was soon changed and we welcomed Raven into the vampire clan with open arms.**

**Raven looked like a teenager and she followed a gothic style. Raven was in her mid-twenties and she was quite a rebel, she answered to no one and she did not take criticism kindly but deep down she had a good heart and she had a fierce loyalty to Darryl which he liked. **

**Raven was originally named Beth by her parents, as the name Raven was darker and as it was better than the name Beth it was deemed more suitable for a vampiress. In order to fit into the clan better Beth changed her name to Raven. I had often thought about my name and whether my name was suitable but as I liked my name I kept it. **

**Larten was still missing Arra; I could see it in his eyes although he did not admit it. Larten had followed Arra's instructions. He looked after me well just as Arra had asked him to and he had also bought me another piece of jewellery that had his crest on it. **

**This time I got given a bracelet but this one was mine and it was not borrowed. It had an engraving into the inside of it and it was sapphires set into silver with a couple of diamonds hanging from its clasp. **

**It had Larten's crest hanging from it also, it looked like a charm bracelet but it was much more expensive and it was dazzling in the light with the cornflower blue sapphires, the stones were almost the shade of Larten's eyes, those same eyes that had made me transfixed the first time I looked into them. **

**I read the inscription that said:**

"**For my beloved clan member forever yours L.C" and it had a symbol of infinity after it that looked like the number eight but it was sideways. **

**I thought it was really sweet; I wore the bracelet all the time and I never took it off. I showed it off to my friends who were of course jealous but they saw how much it meant to me and they admired it. I had to give Larten something in return as he did not have anything with my crest on it although I had no crest; it was sort of like when a lady would give a knight her favours before a joust. I had to think about it carefully. **

**As I had no money to speak of and I was miles away from a town I could not buy anything so I had to make something. Larten had made the bracelet himself after pulling in a few favours and he paid them with Arra's money that she had left but I could not do that so I searched the store room for some things to use. **

**I decided to make him a token of some kind using my embroidery skills. I got some thread out of my mini sewing kit and I stitched onto a piece of linen our initials entwined with Larten's crest on one side and a bat on the other which would serve as my crest. I made it into a favour that could be carried with Larten in his pocket or on his person somewhere. **

**I wrapped it up when it was finished and I gave it to him.**

"**I have something for you. It is my gift to you in return for the bracelet" I said as I handed Larten the tiny parcel.**

**Larten un-wrapped it and pulled out my embroidery, and then he said:**

"**It is really well made; I can see that you have put a lot of effort into it. Is it a handkerchief?"**

"**Not exactly, it is meant to be a favour. It has my bat crest on it you see so you can take it with you and that way you are carrying my crest as I wear yours" I explained.**

"**Oh of course, I see now. I had quite forgotten about favours and ladies. It was not done so much when I grew up but it is very thoughtful of you to give me your crest in this manner, if you think of me as your knight then it makes me think of you as my fair maiden but of course you are no maid" Larten replied with a slight smirk. **

"**Well I do not see you as my knight, I see you more as the one I love with the whole of my heart and soul and to be apart from you is absolute torture. By the way I was a maid as you put it until you came along and I am glad that you did because you are so good at what you do" I replied.**

"**What do I do? If that is the case then we must not separate for too long a period. I feel the same way about you but I am no good at showing my emotions as you know" Larten responded. **

"**Well you make me feel everything you do. It gets better every time and I love it when you touch me and what you do to me when we are in bed is just amazing" I said. **

"**Well I did tell you right at the beginning that it would improve. I had to see if you could take it and if you were suitable to join the clan" Larten replied. **

"**Oh right well I think I have proven myself more than worthy to be here" I said.**

"**Yes I would say so but the big thing is whether the council like you. You have only met a few councillors, most stay in their chambers and I can tell you that they are quite cold and not very welcoming but the others are ok" Larten said.**

"**Ok then, I am sure that everything will be ok. I hope to make a good impression on them all" I responded. **

**We had finished clearing out Arra's quarters and though Darryl had also slept there he wanted new quarters for him and Raven as he did not want to stay in a room where Arra had been as it was too upsetting for him which was understandable. **

**I poked my head out of the sky light in my quarters before I got into my hammock as it was daylight outside and I was tired after moving a large amount of furniture around to help out. **

**I got a good sniff of the air when I poked my head out of the sky light, I could smell a bonfire which was not unusual as many vampires cooked outside or burned their old linens to stop infections spreading too much, that was often done by the medical staff who had to deal with everything to colds and coughs to broken bones and infected wounds and they did a good job of it using what little equipment they had available to them.**

**Larten and I curled up together like we usually did and normally I would snuggle up close to him and fall asleep in his arms but not tonight. I could not sleep for some reason so I got under the cloak and I got on top of Larten who kissed me with vampiric lust. The hammock was quite large so it was ok to roll around in but I preferred the bed so we got on it and proceeded to have some fun since we had not done anything for quite a while. **

**I missed kissing so badly that when we did I made it last as long as I could. I began to rock on top and I did a lot of pulsing my tongue in Larten's mouth and biting his neck but not hard, it was more of a playful thing. **

**I then let Larten take over and of course he went inside me and then he got rough but it felt good so I did not mind. I loved it when I had Larten inside my body almost flooding me with his fluids as there was so much of it. **

**I loved it when he would completely consume me which was when he would kiss me and caress me and the same time as being inside me, I could not do anything but lie there and enjoy it as it was so much fun.**

**I normally ended up with scratches on my back and bruises on my neck but the best thing was when I was able to curl up next to Larten and I loved it when he would hold me close to him whilst we slept as it made me feel so special and loved. **

**I knew that Larten cared deeply for me but whether he was totally in love with me as much as I was in love with him was hard to tell. I hoped that one night Larten would prove his love for me in some way or he would publically confess how he felt to the clan but that was unlikely as Larten was a private individual who keep his deepest feelings concealed. Not even I could tell what he thought about me. **

**I assumed that he loved me because he told me often but he never said it in public and he never talked to any of his friends about me. The other vampires would sing their partners' praises and say how great they were. **

**I knew that Larten hated boasting but saying to his close friends that he loved me was not boasting. I wished to confront him but I was scared of doing so in case I upset him but one night I plucked up the courage and I publically confronted him about it.**

"**Do you love me Larten?" I asked**

"**Why do you ask? In public as well" Larten replied.**

"**Because you never say it in public and you never talk about me to your friends, am I unworthy or something?" I asked.**

"**Of course not, I love you deeply but I do not need to tell people that. I see it as a personal thing" Larten said.**

"**Ok, you would tell someone though if they asked you how you felt about me though would you not?" I continued.**

"**I would say that it was not their concern because it is not but if you wish me to I will tell them in future" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right. If you could it would make me feel better. I get asked all the time how I feel about you and I am always honest about it, I hope you can be the same" I said.**

"**Of course dear as you wish. We had better go as the council is about to gather" Larten said.**

**At that point we left for the first of many council meetings.**

**I sat down on one of the long, wooden benches in the hall and I joined Vancha and Vanez whilst I waited for the meeting to start. Larten stayed by my side the whole time, he had to present me to the Clan and the Council formally as tradition stated.**

**Then the meeting started, the twelve council members entered the hall and they all sat down on their table which was on a slightly elevated platform so that they could see us and we could see them. **

**To start with the councillors read out the names of the vampires who had died and the names of those who had fought in the battle, there were forty four vampires in total who had given their lives in battle and another sixteen who had either died on the way here or who had been killed by other means. We still had a fair few hundred in our clan so we were doing quite well numbers wise. To each vampire and vampiress who had died we said:**

"**Evan in death may you be triumphant." after their name and after we had done that we got on to the main council business.**

"**Would Larten Crepsley and his partner come up here please?" One of the senior council members asked.**

**I walked up onto the elevated platform with Larten close behind me.**

"**Larten, you have taken this girl as your partner correct?" The senior councillor asked.**

"**Yes I have my Lord. This young vampiress is Sarah" Larten said.**

"**Step forward Sarah" The councillor said.**

**I stepped forward.**

"**How old are you Sarah?" The councillor asked.**

"**I am twenty four my Lord, I am a fully blooded vampiress." I said.**

"**Very well, you seem suited to this life. Is Larten good to you?" The councillor continued**

"**Very good to me my Lord, he spoils me rotten which I do not deserve. Have you seen this crest he gave me?" I asked.**

"**No, that was my next question. Let me see it" The councillor said.**

"**I took off my bracelet and I handed it over. Larten also handed over the favour which I had made him to be examined.**

"**This is a fine crest; you have obviously put in a lot of effort to find it. The embroidery is good too. These are fine" Said the councillor and he handed them back.**

"**One more thing before we move on, how much do you love Sarah Larten? Sarah how much do you love Larten?" The councillor asked us both.**

"**I love Larten with every part of my heart and soul, to be without him is to be without life because he saved it and I owe him mine in return" I explained.**

"**It is true; I saved Sarah from a bear that had been infected with vampaneze blood. I love her with a burning vampiric passion" Larten explained.**

"**I understand, Sarah if you owe Larten your life then clearly he loves you or he would not have saved you and I can see in your eyes how much that you love Larten. I am content. Let us move on now to our next item on the agenda" The councillor said as we took our seats once more. **

**The meeting dragged on until all of the items on the agenda had been discussed. It took ages because the council had not held a public meeting for years so there were a lot of things to talk about. The most difficult thing was what to do about our defences as we had been breached. It would take a long time to repair the damage that the vampaneze had done to our halls.**

**The vampaneze had not just fought in there they had put blood on the walls and they had carved obscene messages and symbols into the rock.**

**We decided to have a major decorating challenge to see if we could repair the damages before the winter, in the winter those halls were needed for animal houses and nothing could live in them at the moment as they were filthy and infected with the stench of vampaneze. Their blood was poisonous to animals, one lick would make an animal mad and dangerous like that bear had been and we could not risk that.**


	13. Chapter 13 The Great Mountain Clean Up

**Chapter 13 the Great Mountain Clean Up**

**After the council had concluded their meetings they organised us into teams of twenty, each team had a captain and a specific area to clean up and repair because the mountain was huge, it would take us ages otherwise. **

**I was put into a team with Larten, Vancha, Gavnur, Von, Raven, Amira, Sophia, Peter, Thomas, Steve and a few others who I could not name. Our job was carving the obscene symbols off of the stone walls and painting them afterwards. We also had the carpentry jobs and as I could sew I had to make a few new banners to hang up for celebrations because the others had been torn down, burned and replaced with vampaneze ones. **

"**Sarah you make a start on those banners, I will start carving these walls and the rest of you go and get painting equipment, ladders and overalls for us all" Thomas said, he was our team leader by a two vote margin. **

**I left the halls and I came back with a load of materials and a rather large sewing chest that had been given to me as a gift. **

**I quickly cut out the template pieces to make the banners; I had to make a black background with a red letter "V" stitched into the centre of each black background. I then had to make banners with the vampire crest on it which was a universal symbol used by us all. The symbol was a bat on a dark blue background with a moon and three stars on it. It was like our mountain flag. **

**The black banners were used as decorations and they were hung up in every hall to make the place look good because most of the halls were grey stone where they had not been painted. **

**It took me weeks to make the large banners, even with my super speed. I roped in a few others to help me cut out the pieces so it did not take quite so long. Eventually they were finished and they were hung up over the now painted walls. **

**The carving took not as long and pretty soon the obscene symbols had gone and there were no vampaneze traces left in the halls which was a relief because it had been pretty smelly before. I helped out with the painting. I did what I had to do to make it look good. I helped Larten make a wooden platform on wheels that could be stood on to paint the ceilings. **

**To get onto the platform you vaulted and grabbed on then pulled yourself up, climbed up it from the bottom or you would use a ladder. It was easy to move around. **

**Eventually all of the damaged halls had nice painted ceilings that showed scenes from vampiric folk stories on them. I helped out with the painting, being thirty foot off of the ground did not bother me, I was safe. **

**I helped with the carpentry as well; we made a few new benches and tables because the other ones had been smashed during the battle to make weapons. Some of the tables had been picked up and thrown or piled up and used as a barrier to stop the enemies from advancing deeper into the mountains and it worked for a while but eventually they were smashed into pieces when the enemy broke through so we had to replace all of them. **

**The other thing was that most of the tables had animal bones used instead of wooden legs. The new benches and tables were made properly with wooden legs. As a result of this they were a lot sturdier than the previous tables, they were no longer wobbly. Instead they were stronger and they looked better than the old tables and benches which were made out of planks of wood that had been nailed onto animal leg bones. **

**After four months of hard graft and everybody including the Princes helping out our mountain halls looked great. We had new banners, new furniture, new weapon cases and the store room had been organised so we knew what we had. There was even an item list so we could do a stock take and all of the animals had been counted and numbered so we knew how many we had of each animal. **

**The walls had been painted and we had put up a memorial board, all of the dead vampires would have their name written onto it so that we could remember them and how they died. We also had a new register system so we knew who was at the mountain, who was not at the mountain and where people were if they were needed. **

**It was so organised now and it made life a lot easier for all of us as before nobody knew where anything was or where anybody was. **

**We also put numbers on the doors of the sleeping quarters. That way we knew which vampire had which quarters because quite often newly blooded vampires would get lost and then they would end up in the wrong quarters, if they had a numbered door to go to then that would not happen as much. **

**Pretty soon it was the end of the council and most vampires left the mountains in search of new experiences and new countries to explore. **

**Larten had decided to go back with the circus while I went on an adventure of my own but being apart from him was going to be hell. I had no choice because I had been asked to go by the Generals and I could not refuse a direct order.**


	14. Chapter 14 The Infiltration of the Londe

**Chapter 14 the Infiltration of the London Sewers**

**Departing from the mountains was fine. The Generals and I travelled by train and then by bus until we reached Kings Cross. After which we went down a disguised manhole cover and then we were in the heart of the vampaneze underworld. **

**Our job was to find the leader of the vampaneze and slay him, that way the numbers of vampaneze would dwindle and we would be safe from the threat of a war which none of us wanted to fight in. **

**My job was to act as a double agent and a decoy. I had to act like a rogue vampiress who wanted revenge on the clan for something and I had to be a decoy which means that I had to be a distraction whilst the other vampires made their move to capture the vampaneze leader who was reported to be a mere teenage boy not that I believed that!**

**I went ahead into the tunnels, it was pitch black to start with but as I got deeper inside it started to get lighter and eventually there was a green glow where the vampaneze had put in electric cables and green lights to make the place look eerie. I knew that I was getting closer, I could smell the vampaneze. They smelt like old musty socks, dirty clothes and sewage with a strong hint of rat. It was foul! I could also smell corpses and that made me panic because I knew that if there was a high body count then that meant either one of two things: one they were very greedy; or two there were lots more vampaneze alive than what we had anticipated. I had to be extremely cautious and alert in case of booby traps or worse walking into a whole nest of them. As luck would have it I made it down the end of the tunnel safely and I found a disused pipe that had been turned into a type of dormitory, there were a whole load of bunk beds and they had all been used. **

**I exited that pipe and I found like a living area complete with a three piece suite and a television that worked, it's amazing where you can get a signal to watch TV. **

**I knew that they were not paying their licence but who was going to stop them? The TV Company would never find them so they were freeloaders as well as murderers, I bet to myself that the TV belonged to a victim of theirs and the three piece suite was either stolen or "Borrowed" without returning it. **

**It made me sick but I had to infiltrate so I put my feelings aside and I waited for the vampaneze to return. I watched the TV while I waited, then I phoned Larten off of my mobile but he had no signal. He was either on stage, he had no battery or he was flitting somewhere. I left him a text message to say where I was and then I heard voices coming from along the tunnel. The voices sounded male so I waited and I turned off the TV so I could hear them better. **

**I heard the voices getting closer and closer. I was dying to know who it was and then the door to the pipe opened and in walked about eight vampaneze and four vampets who were the equivalent of half-blooded vampaneze. I popped up from behind the sofa and the vampaneze jumped in surprise.**

"**Evening guys, I thought I would come and visit you lot. I am a rogue vampiress who wants more from life than to be stuck in a dingy mountain. I have come to join you" I said.**

"**Oh really, well we have enough room for you but how do we know that you are not a spy or a double agent?" The vampaneze said.**

"**Well I have got information for you and I can tell you with my hand on my heart that I am no spy. Would a spy give away valuable information about the new defences which the clan has?" I said.**

"**Very well, you may stay but you will have to prove yourself worthy to be a member of our clan. Are you up for a hunt? We all are" The vampaneze asked.**

"**Sure thing, I am dying to drain someone of their blood. I have a high blood lust that no vampire feed could satisfy" I said.**

"**Fair enough, let's go. The city has many people to choose from" The vampaneze said.**

"**Who are you all then? I am Sarah" I said.**

"**I am George, then there is Darren and Michael, Steve in the corner there and the others are Jack, Jake, Andrew and Patrick" said George. He was obviously the leader of the troupe. **

**I followed George out of the tunnel and we all popped up out of a manhole cover in an alley way. We crossed the road and then we broke into a block of flats via an open window. George went upstairs and picked out his victim, I followed and I picked out mine and the others waited for their turn, they kept watch whilst we fed. I picked a woman in her thirties, she looked healthy enough, I loathed what I did but I had to convince them that I was on their side. I cut the sleeping woman's vein with one of my nails, clamped my mouth around the wound and then I drained her dry without thinking twice about it. **

**I buried her in the garden next to the block of flats as was customary and then we waited whilst the others had their feed. **

"**What a great feed. Do you not think?" I said.**

"**Yeah, it was ok, I could have done with another but we cannot take too many or the humans would get suspicious" Andrew said, and then George cut in:**

"**You fed well Sarah; you seem to know how to feed properly. I saw how you drained that corpse without stopping or showing remorse. You must have some vampaneze blood in you" **

"**Well I was thirsty; I had not fed for a while so I was hungrier than what I normally am" I said.**

"**Fair enough, anyway we had better get your room prepared. There is a football game on tonight. I think it is Leeds United playing Spurs. Do you want to watch it?" George asked**

"**Hell yeah I support Spurs. I have missed football so much. I am so glad that you have a TV. I hope that I am not putting you out too much; I do not require anything except a room and food. I can clean and hunt for you in return." I offered. **

"**Very well, we have a deal. Welcome the troupe Sarah" George said as we all squeezed onto the sofa or into the chairs to watch the game. **

**I went to bed that morning and when I arose there was a plate of sandwiches by my bed. I scoffed them and then I got dressed and I started cleaning. I knew that Spurs had won their game but as we had all had lager and cider none of us could remember much. **

**I got the slime off of the walls and I fed the rats. We had about six tame ones and a few wild ones and they wandered everywhere. I chucked some bread crumbs and some cheese down for them and they all came out and grabbed it before they scurried away. I also found out where the make shift kitchen was. It was a sink that had been plumbed in to the mains water by a cleverly hidden cable. To get clean water you turned on the tap that was above ground and attached the piece of hose pipe that was there. The hose pipe bypassed the sewers underground and it was inside the main water pipe. You then had to suck the pipe to bring up the water. It was hard to explain but it worked and the water ran through the hose pipe into a large barrel that was by the sink. To get the water you would put a plug in the sink, open the barrel and use a bowl to get out what you needed. Then you would detach the hose pipe and everything would be hidden until you needed it again. Lucky for me the barrel was full so I scooped out what water I needed, put it in the floor washing bucket and I gave the place a good old scrub to get rid of germs and the smell. **

**I found a disposable barbeque pack which I used to cook on. I put a pan on the top of it and I cooked up what I found in the cool box. These vampaneze had thought of everything. I assumed that George must have blooded a plumber and an electrician and then they must have used their trade to make the sewers into a functioning home. **

**They must have rewired the electrics and re-routed the water supply and I figured that the TV satellite dish must have been someone else's but they may have changed the position of it slightly so that they could get their TV for free while the poor human paid for it not realising that they were paying for two TVs and a troupe of vampaneze to watch what they watched. **

**It was very clever but totally illegal and very devious but I had to admire their ingenuity at the same time. I made the most of it and for lunch I cooked up a stew that was made out of the cool box contents. It was mainly meat with a little stock and a dash of wine to make it better. **

**No one complained and we all ate some. Afterwards we got rid of the disposable barbeque and when it was dark I went out shopping using my credit card. I bought food and I bought a few other things like a wash bag and some toiletries to share because keeping clean in a sewer is not easy, even a disused one. **

**I got a call from one of the Generals when I was out. They were pleased with how I had managed to fit in to the troupe so easily. I had my mission to think of though; I had to find out about the vampaneze leader and his plans. **

**I finally heard from Larten, he rang me also and we had a good catch up. He was not far away but I knew that if I took too long the vampaneze would get suspicious so Larten took a risk. He had the night off so he flitted at full speed to pay me a much welcomed visit. **

"**I am so glad to see you. You have no idea what it is like without you." I said.**

"**I know you have a job to do. When you have completed it you may join me at the circus. You have got a slot in my act." Larten said as he held me up above him. **

"**I miss you so much; I hope that my mission does not take too long. If I succeed the whole clan will be safe but if I am discovered it means that I will be killed and that will spark a war" I explained.**

**Larten said nothing to me. He just held me tightly and kissed me, and then he wrapped his cloak around me and said:**

**Take my cloak, that way you can curl up in it every night and think of me whilst we cannot be together" **

"**Thank you darling but the scent would surely give me away" I explained.**

"**Not really, you can say that you killed a vampire and took it as a trophy. That way it explains the scent and it makes you look good" Larten said.**

"**That is a great idea. Thank you for flitting all this way to see me. I must return now as I have been a long time" I said.**

"**Very well, take care of yourself and I am only at the other end of a phone if you need me for anything. Call me whenever you can. I love you with every part of my heart." Larten said as he kissed me once more before he vanished in a red blur. I called out to him as he was still in ear shot **

"**Bye dear, see you soon I hope" **

**I then returned to the sewers with my shopping and Larten's cloak wrapped around me tightly. It smelt of him and of the mountains which made me home sick but I had to focus on my task. **

"**What is that draped around you Sarah?" George asked when I returned.**

"**It was a vampire's cloak; I killed him and took it as a trophy" I explained.**

"**Really, did you know the vampire who you just killed?" George asked me.**

"**No, he was hanging around so I sneaked up on him and stuck my dagger into his back" I said.**

"**Well, well we have a true killer here. Well done Sarah that is one less piece of scum to worry about." George said as he congratulated me.**

"**Hey Sarah has just killed a scum bag vampire, come and see the trophy she has" George called out and the troupe all came in and told me how cool I was. **

"**Check out this cloak, lets hang it up as a banner. It would look good on the wall" Michael said.**

"**No, I want it on my bed as a cover. That way I can be reminded of my first kill. It is big enough to use as a duvet" I said.**

"**George what do you think? Hang it up or let Sarah have it?" Michael asked.**

"**Let Sarah have it for she has earned it. I have some ale, let's celebrate" George said.**

"**Yes let's celebrate; we can call it a vampire killing party" I said.**

"**Great idea we should go and get hammered. What did you do with the corpse?" Steve asked.**

"**I buried it and I took his cloak as a trophy because it is so fine" I explained as I opened a can of strong dark ale.**

"**You know something George? I can drink like a fish if I choose to so getting hammered is a great idea" I said.**

"**Alright everyone let's have a toast to Sarah and her vampire killing ways, long may it continue" said George.**

"**Cheers everybody" I said and we all sat down and ate the snacks which I had bought. I had crisps, cheese footballs and other nibbles. I had also brought back a few other things like crackers and a few sandwich filling things. **

**We partied long after the sun had risen, George attached his MP3 player to the stereo speakers so we could dance and have a real gathering. We were so deep underground that the tunnels were soundproof so we did not draw attention to ourselves but boy did we have some fun. Michael tried to kiss me so I let him and then I kissed him back. I felt bad but I had to keep up appearances. **

"**Hey Sarah, what is that bracelet on your wrist?" Patrick asked me.**

"**Oh it was a birthday gift from my friend before I was blooded. I keep it on because I like it. I hope you do not mind me wearing it" I explained.**

"**Oh right, it looks really pretty. Is that diamonds hanging off of it?" Patrick asked.**

"**Yes and the blue stones are sapphires" then I went on to say**

"**It was a birthday present for my eighteenth" I lied.**

"**Cool, hey guys check out Sarah's bracelet" Patrick said.**

**The entire troupe admired it, George said that I was welcome to wear it and he gave me his crest to wear which was nice, he gave me a necklace that had two snakes entwined on it, they had ruby eyes and a few emeralds surrounded the engraving which was on platinum. **

**I of course thanked George, it made me feel like the vampaneze trusted me and to wear the crest of the leader as well was a good sign. This is what I wanted them to do. The troupe was playing right into my hands and they did not even realise it. **

**A few nights went by and I left the tunnels to go hunting. Or at least that is what I told George. In actual fact I was meeting the Generals to discuss tactics. I did go hunting as well but after the meeting had finished. At the meeting we discussed how things were progressing and whether it was time for me to ask about the big boss in charge of all vampaneze. Larten turned up to my great and very welcome surprise. The Generals had planned it that way as a reward for all of my work. **

"**Evening you lot. What is the news from the sewers?" Larten asked.**

"**I have got in with the troupe, they think I am great. The cloak ploy worked and the leader of the troupe George has given me his crest." I said.**

"**Well that is good news. Let's see his crest. It may mean something." Larten said.**

**I took off my necklace and I handed it over. **

"**Entwined snakes, that means that George is tricky and he is also a slippery customer, the ruby eyes mean that he is watching you and he is not dumb and the emeralds show off his wealth. He has you in his coils in other words and he is not about to let you go, be careful with this one my love" Larten said.**

"**Ok, that is an interesting reading I did not know any of that" I said.**

"**Well your bracelet means love, trust and being together for as long as we can be. The sapphires mean trust and the diamonds mean love and togetherness. The inscription is my way of showing you how I feel" Larten explained.**

"**That is quite different to the inscription on the necklace, it just says the word "Mine" " I explained. **

"**That is because George is possessive and controlling. Watch your back darling" Larten said.**

"**Very well, I hope this information is useful to you all. Right now I have to hunt and return to the sewers but thank you so much for everything and Larten I will be in touch soon I swear" I said as I hugged Larten and as he held me he kissed me hard because we knew that we would not be together for quite a while. **

**I returned to the sewers with a few pigeons. There was no countryside around so I had to manage with the city pigeons. They were ok when they had been cooked but we did not want them too often because some of them may have carried disease and they did not have much meat on them anyway. **

**I left the sewers with George's permission and I went to the freak show. George had told me that in order to find the vampaneze boss I had to find Mr Tall who would direct me to Mr Tiny who was the only person who knew where the vampaneze boss lived, he was apparently fifteen or sixteen and his name was Steve Leopard.**

**I went to the freak show and I tried to get back stage but the guard would not let me pass. **

"**Let me in, I have to see Larten he is my boyfriend" I said to the guard.**

"**Not without a back stage pass" The guard said.**

"**Fine I will phone him and I will tell him to tell you to let me pass" I said.**

"**Ok, go on then" The guard said annoyed.**

**I dialled Larten's number and I said to him;**

"**Hello darling I am at the freak show at the back stage gate but the guard will not let me pass. Can you come and sort it please?" **

"**Ok I will be there in a moment. Bye" Larten replied, then he hung up and about a minute later he appeared by my side in his usual red blur.**

"**Let my girlfriend in Rob, I blooded her myself and she wears my crest" Larten said to the guard.**

"**Sorry, I was only doing my job. Feel free to pass" Rob said and he stood aside so I could go through the gate. **

"**You may need this" Said Larten and he put a back stage pass around my neck.**

"**Thank you dear. I need to find Mr Tall because I have to find Mr Tiny. A vampaneze that I am staying with told me that Mr Tiny knows where the big vampaneze boss lives" I explained.**

"**Ok, I am due on stage in a minute; you can help me with the show. I need you to let Madam Octa spin a web over your mouth so that she can swing from me to you and back again" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right ok then, how is she?" I asked.**

"**Madam Octa is fine; she is eating her dinner at the moment in my trailer. I gave her a large cricket so she will be finishing that off" Larten said as we headed to his trailer. We walked in and sure enough Madam Octa was on the table top eating a cricket, well she was drinking its juices anyway. **

"**I need to find Mr Tiny. I am planning to go and find him alone because you have the shows to perform" I said.**

"**Absolutely not, I forbid it because Mr Tiny is dangerous. He wants revenge on me for what I did to his daughter Lady Evanna. He is likely to kill you. Mr Tall is ok though, he hates Mr Tiny and he loathes vampaneze so you will be safe with him" Larten said.**

"**What did you do to Mr Tiny's daughter?" I asked tentatively.**

"**About seventy years ago I went to visit Lady Evanna at her home with some of my friends. I got very drunk and I tried to kiss her. Lady Evanna gave me the scar that is on my cheek in revenge and I gave her one back so now Mr Tiny wants revenge on me. Now do you understand why you cannot go alone? I would have to come with you to guard you as it is dangerous and Mr Tiny has all many of creatures around him, rumours say that he has a wolf pack that he sends out to attack intruders" Larten explained to me.**

"**Of course I understand. If I had known I would not have suggested it. Do you think Lady Evanna would help me if I asked her? I would not mention you to her or who I am" I asked.**

"**You would never find her, Lady Evanna is a witch and she can disguise herself as anything from a bird to a blade of grass in the African savannah, good luck trying to track her down" Larten said.**

"**Oh, I guess we had better do the show and then ask Mr Tall for help" I suggested.**

"**Yes I agree, you can scoop up Madam Octa now she has finished eating I am sure she will not mind" Larten said so I scooped her up and I stroked her whilst we waited to go on stage and perform.**

**Because it was my first ever show I was nervous but I had Larten by my side so that gave me courage to perform. We stepped on stage and we saw a rather small audience. **

**Larten did his usual warning speech about how dangerous Madam Octa was and then he started doing his routine with her. I stood still most of the time whilst I waited for my big moment, then it came. Madam Octa scurried up my leg and she paused, then she climbed up onto my face and she began to spin her web. She let herself dangle and then she swung and leapt up into the air onto Larten's hand, she scurried up his arm and then she did the same thing but this time she leapt onto my chest as my hand was not quite big enough to catch her then she crawled down my leg and back into her wooden cage and that was it, our act was over. We got a standing ovation which was unexpected so we vaulted upwards and did a couple of acrobatic tricks and then we exited even though the crowd were calling for an encore.**

"**Well done Madam Octa, you performed perfectly. Shall we give them an encore?" Larten asked.**

**The spider put one leg up as if to say yes so we all went back on stage and we gave the crowd a dazzling display of speed and agility including one very dangerous move which involved me vaulting upwards, hand standing on Larten's shoulders and then catching Madam Octa on my feet. It worked and the audience were stunned. Then we let the next act go on because we had got the audience warmed up. **

"**Sarah you were brilliant, I had no idea at your talents, you have never performed and the crowd wanted an encore which is something that we never get so you have to be a part of the act now" Larten said to me as we went back to his trailer.**

"**Wow I never expected that and Madam Octa was amazing. I cannot believe that the crowd wanted an encore either. I am so pleased; I expect Mr Tall will be pleased also" I said.**

"**I expect so, anyway lets go and rest now because I am starving, you hungry dear?" Larten asked.**

"**I am a bit thirsty, I need a feed but I am not hungry as such." I said.**

"**Ok, let's go for a feed then. I will put Madam Octa to bed and then we will go" Larten said as he unlocked his trailer. **

**We went inside and Larten put Madam Octa into her terrarium which was a lot bigger than her wooden travel cage, she had things to climb up and a tunnel to go into, she scurried under her log when she was put inside and that was where she slept on a bit of straw and her own webbing. **

**We then left for a feed as we had not fed together for a long time. I fed passively so Larten brought me back a flask full of blood which I drained and then we kissed in a way that we could share blood also. I had not done it before and it was quite fun. It could be quite messy but Larten was experienced, he knew what to do so I let him take then lead with our blood sharing kiss. **

"**That was interesting; I have never done that before or even thought about it" I said.**

"**I figured that it was about time that we did that. You will not have done it before unless you have kissed anyone else and not told me about it which would make me very upset" Larten explained.**

"**I have never, ever been unfaithful to you but one of the vampaneze that I am staying with did try it on. He kissed me but I pushed him back first and then when he insisted, so as not to look suspicious I let him kiss me but only for a brief moment. I had to do it to keep up my disguise as a rogue vampiress, I could not say that I was with you because you are supposed to be dead, that is what I told them when I took your cloak with me. I do not believe that is being unfaithful to you" I explained.**

"**Oh well I see your predicament there, that is not being unfaithful because you did not do it deliberately, he came onto you and if you did it for no other reason than what you have explained then it is fine but try not to encourage that sort of behaviour" Larten responded. **

"**I am not trying to encourage it; in fact I am trying to get the information so that I can get out of there and back home to our hayloft where we belong" I said.**

"**I believe you darling, you do not have to justify yourself to me, besides no vampaneze could match my skills, no one can do what I can do to you. When I do those things to you I do it because I know you love it" Larten said.**

"**I know that, I am getting pretty up for it actually. We need to make the most of our opportunities" I said. **

"**I agree but my trailer is not big enough. I only have a single coffin in there. We will have to do it in the field or flit somewhere" Larten explained.**

"**Very well, let's flit somewhere, you must know of a place" I said.**

"**I know of several places that we can go. There is an abandoned house that I bought and took over; I turned it into a private refuge for myself and my partner if I have one. It has all the modern conveniences but it is out of the way and as I own it we can go there" Larten explained. **

"**Ok it sounds cool. Where is it?" I asked.**

"**It is about an hour's flit so it is quite a long way away but it is well worth it if you can flit for that long" Larten said.**

"**That is nothing. I will let you lead the way as you know where you are going. I have no idea" I said.**

**At that point we left for one of Larten's secret houses. I assumed that it would be a normal house with a vampiric style of decorating but in fact it was huge! A twenty three bed roomed manor house with land and stables attached to it. **

**It took me and hour and ten minutes to get there, I followed Larten's blur the whole way, being clad in red he was easy to spot and follow. I got there and Larten let us both in. **

**I switched on the light and I found myself standing in a grand entrance hall with everything in it, there were two staircases leading upwards and a long passage that lead to the other rooms like the library and the living room. **

**It was the biggest house I had been in apart from a stately manor that my parents had taken me to once to attend my cousin's wedding but this did not compare. **

**We headed into the main lounge room where there was a real log fire and plenty of chairs and sofas to sit on; there was a big flat screen TV and even a cordless phone. The best thing was the three seated sofa that was big enough to sleep on because it had a pull out bed attached to it and it was certainly big enough to make out on which is exactly what I had wanted. I lay down on it; I had already stripped off so Larten did the same. We used a duvet and a blanket to cover us and then we used the sofa for its purpose and we made out without stopping or thinking about it we just did it, the velvet sofa material caressed my skin as I moved back and forth along it and Larten touched me in every way he could to keep me excited. It felt good to have skin on skin and soft material to snuggle up in whilst we made out, we tried a couple of new positions and we tried to make it last for as long as possible so that we got the maximum amount of feeling from it. **

**After a couple of hours of making out we decided to really get deep and without warning Larten entered me and he made me gasp because he was really going all out. I had not known him to be like this so I held on tight and did my utmost to enjoy it. We were so deep into it that our bodies became one in a sense. We were moving and breathing in sync until I decided to get rough, then the biting and scratching began, I ran my nails down Larten's back and I gave him a love bite, which he returned before he pumped his fluids into me, he ran his nails down my chest as he was on top and as he pumped his fluids into me we did a rocking motion to ensure maximum feeling. I could not make any noise because we were kissing so much; I wanted to make noise though because it was so powerful. Larten went as deep as he could; he rolled over so that I was on top. I rocked and I got to the point of no return and then I let myself go, I got Larten to finish me off and then I writhed in sheer excitement, I moved so that I slid up and down the silk duvet cover so as to feel everything that was being done to my body. **

**I loved it, I loved Larten so much and to have him do to me what he had just done was the best bit about our relationship although spending time with him was great too. When Larten had completed what he was doing to me he said;**

"**So are you satisfied? I hope that was ok for you, it was one of my better performances."**

"**I could not ask for anything better, I only hope that you can keep on performing like that so that I will always be satisfied" I replied.**

"**I have never done it like that before, my ex-girlfriends could not handle it like that and Arra always had to be in charge, she was dominating and quite rough, at least you let me do what I am trying to achieve before you take the lead" Larten said. **

"**Well when it's that good why should I stop you?" I asked.**

"**You should not stop me, you should lay there and let it happen, and I do my best for you and obviously being over a hundred helps" Larten said.**

"**Well considering the fact that I was a virgin when we met I think I have done pretty well to learn what to do and how to perform for you" I said.**

"**I agree, anyway we had better seek out Mr Tall, I guess that you cannot be away from the scumbags for too long" Larten said.**

"**Regrettably yes I have to return to the scumbag troupe soon but not until I have the information that I need" I said. **

**We flitted back to the circus grounds at that point; I had to find Mr Tall so that Larten and I could find Mr Tiny and therefore sort out what needed to be sorted out.**

**We found Mr Tall; he was in his own trailer reading a newspaper when I knocked on the door.**

"**Who is it?" barked a voice from inside the door.**

"**It is Larten and Sarah, we need some advice" I said.**

"**Come on in then my friends, I can read my paper later" said the voice from inside the door.**

**We entered Mr Tall's trailer and he pointed to a sofa which we both sat on. I was shaking so Larten held my hand. **

"**Now my vampire friends, what can I do for you both? I was very impressed with your performance earlier, you got a standing ovation and an encore I heard, that is our first ever one so well done to both of you" Mr Tall said.**

"**Well I need to know where to find Mr Tiny, he knows where the vampaneze leader is, if I find him and kill him then I can prevent a war; we need your help because we both know how much you hate both vampaneze and Mr Tiny" I explained.**

"**Well Mr Tiny is a tricky character, he moves constantly. It is hard to pin him down to one spot. You will be happy to know that the supposed wolf pack that he has is a myth. I have never seen any such creatures. The last time that I saw him he was at the mountains playing around with the Book of Souls, trying to bring about the apocalypse but so far he has not succeeded, that has angered him, he has tried for years to cause the apocalypse but he is missing something and he does not know what it is and neither do I but one thing is for sure, you do not want to get on the wrong side of him as Larten will tell you" Mr Tall said.**

"**Well where is the best place to look?" I asked.**

"**Try Venice or better yet try the past, Mr Tiny travels back and forth through time and he has the power to change history so be warned" Mr Tall said. **

"**Ok, he is one freaky character" I said.**

"**Yes but he has his purpose. His purpose is unclear to us now but he was put here for a reason" Larten said.**

"**Well thank you for your information, I am sure that I will find him at some point" I said.**

"**You mean we will find him, anyway one thing I do know is that he travels with reanimated, soulless corpses called "Little People" and he has a purple limousine, so if we find that we find him" Larten said.**

"**That narrows it down somewhat. We had better start searching, thank you so much Mr Tall, you have been most informative" I said and we both left. **

**I heard Mr Tall call out;**

"**You're welcome" As we left and then as the sun was coming up we both went to bed as we had a big night ahead of us.**


	15. The Search for Mr Tiny

**Chapter 15 the Search for Mr Tiny**

**I looked out of the trailer window; the sky was yellow and pinkish red where the sun was setting. I got dressed and I fed Madame Octa before I fixed my breakfast whilst I waited for Larten to wake up. I did not wish to wake him up myself, because he was holding me close when I got up he moved when I did. **

**I had the remnants of a chicken pie to eat and some cereal for breakfast. It was not much but it was enough for me. I fixed Larten's breakfast of sausage and beans as that was what he had asked me to make so I took it to him, he was still asleep but the smell woke him up and after he was dressed we packed up our travel bags and flitted off to town where we could begin our search. **

**I phoned George and I explained to him the situation and he stopped by to see me briefly, Larten had flitted ahead so as not to be seen. **

"**You smell of vampire and human food" George said.**

"**I killed another vampire and when I fed last I raided the kitchen cupboard for food, I was so hungry George. I need a shower and a change of clothes." I explained.**

"**Yeah you do, anyway have you found our boss yet?" George asked.**

"**No, not as yet but I am looking forward to meeting him. He sounds really cool" I said.**

"**Steve is a great guy if you are on his side, he is so kind and caring towards us but to vampires he is cruel and he can be really evil at times" George said.**

"**Well thanks for the heads up George; I will see you guys soon. Call me if you hear anything. You have my number" I said. I hugged George and then I left to catch up with Larten who was already ten miles ahead of me. **

**I caught up with Larten and we continued our journey to the town centre. I was so glad to be travelling with Larten again, our bond was unbreakable. No one could separate us, not even the vampaneze scumbags who we were trying to destroy. **

"**I can smell vampaneze everywhere, they must have been here before, and can you smell it?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes the air is definitely foul, what do we do?" I asked.**

"**Well if we bump into any we kill them or better yet you talk to them and tell them about George and I will flit ahead and kill any that I find" Larten said.**

"**Good plan, I think that they must have either met here or had a camp here, you can see the holes where tent pegs were" I said.**

"**Very observant of you, we had best get out of here quickly then in case they return" Larten warned me so we left at a top flitting speed to cover as much ground as possible. **

**We reached the town and we holed up in an abandoned warehouse, it was damp and cold but it was safe from the sun and from potential enemies.**

**We had to think of a strategy for finding Mr Tiny and then it came to me. If we could track down where the purple limo had been sold then we could find out where Mr Tiny had ordered it from and if we found that out we may have found him. **

"**I think I have a plan to find Mr Tiny" I said.**

"**Oh? What is it dear?" Larten asked interested.**

"**Well he has a modern limo so if we find out where it was sold then we can find out where he is by asking people if they have seen one. Also we can track it down because it has to have tax and insurance, for that you need an address, find the address and we may find him." I suggested.**

"**Good thinking darling, I never would have thought of that. It is so simple but so clever" Larten said.**

"**I will make a few phone calls and I will contact the DVLA for some information, I mean how many purple limos are there in Britain?" I said.**

"**Excellent idea but now let us play cards, I am bored, and I am not tired either" Larten said.**

"**Ok then honey, let's play cribbage for cash" I suggested.**

"**I have no cash on me dearest; I have only my empty wallet. We can play for ale and blood instead" Larten explained.**

"**Very well, if you had told me I would have taken some money out, I still have my credit card, and it is not maxed out yet" I said. **

"**Anyway, let us play, I bet you a half pint of ale that you have fifteen two and a pair" Larten said.**

"**Wrong, I have fifteen four and a pair" I said as I showed my hand.**

"**Here you go then, a half pint is yours" Larten said and he handed it over.**

**I downed it and then I made my bet.**

"**I bet you one flask of blood that you have the usual eight including a run of three" I said.**

"**Wrong I have only two pairs" Larten said so I handed over my flask of blood. **

**We continued playing until we had almost run out of supplies. We had to keep some for the journey so we stopped playing, we played chess afterwards, and it was fun but taxing. Chess is not that easy to play, it is as much about strategy as it is about moving the pieces. **

**We played chess until it was very late in the day. We left the abandoned building and we went shopping. I had to buy new clothes and more food. Larten needed a couple of things as well so we went together. We had never shopped together before and the town centre was packed, the carnival was in town so we got stuck in crowds but we managed to get through them so that we could shop. **

**I had a list of items to buy that was;**

**Milk,**

**Bread,**

**Cheese,**

**Razor blades,**

**New trousers,**

**New socks,**

**New underwear,**

**A pack of batteries,**

**A bulb for my lantern,**

**A new gas refill for the camping stove,**

**A pair of waterproof shoes,**

**A new flask, mine was leaking**

**Larten's list was quite a bit shorter but his stuff was expensive, he needed;**

**Thermal socks,**

**A metal water bottle,**

**A new watch,**

**A compass as his was cracked,**

**A sheath for his dagger,**

**And finally a new rucksack as his was old and it was too small to carry everything in it. **

**We both needed phone credit so I got that and I also picked up a travel charger so that we could charge our phones on the go. The sheath for Larten's dagger was a specialist item that we had to go to the Army Outfitters for, Larten used his dagger as a gutting knife for fish and rabbits, he also used it to skin them with, and it was an important tool to have. **

**We spent roughly two hundred pounds in town and it all went on my card. I knew that I would have to pay it off when I had the money but not until the end of the month. **

**I also put together a medical box which contained modern items that were sterile. It had bandages, plasters, scissors, a burn kit, a sling, lint gauze, surgical tape and safety pins. I also put together a box of medicines for headaches and other ailments. It was important to get stuff while you could in case you had to go a long way away from the nearest town where it was not available. **

**I made a few phone calls in the morning and I tracked down the limo seller to Birmingham which was miles out from where we were, we were near Surrey so we had a long way to travel. Flitting there would not take long but there was not really an easy way to go. The simplest route was on the motorway but we could not flit on a motorway so we got a bus instead. It took ages but when we arrived we were able to get out of the sun as there were no shortage of abandoned and condemned houses to chooses from, not that I wanted to stay in one for any length of time. **

**The bus had curtains which we had pulled to keep the sun off of us, we had arrived at lunchtime and it was a blazing hot day so we ran for cover and we found it in the form of a condemned apartment, it had been burnt out but the roof was on it still, we found a room where the fire damage was not quite so bad and we slept there on a pile of blankets and camping mattresses until it was dark outside. **

**I had found out where the limo had been sold so I had an appointment there to see the manager. I covered myself in clothes and sun block and I wore extra strong sunglasses as my defence from the lethal rays before I ventured outside in the heat to the office. **

**I was sweating buckets because it was so hot outside, I had a fleece on and trousers to cover my skin and it was torture, I felt like the sun was leeching my energy and cooking me at the same time. **

**I was lucky that the office was out of the sun and that there was a water machine, I was very dehydrated by the time that I arrived. The fresh water in the machine made me a lot better, I had needed it. **

**After speaking to the lady behind the desk, I saw some photographs of the limo, they matched Mr Tiny's limo but of course when he had bought it he had used a disguise and a fake address. There were tax and MOT records but no insurance papers so I had to speak to the local garages and the tax office to see what information they had on the mysterious purple limo. **

**As luck would have it the limos was due for a clean and a service the next day and Mr Desmond Tiny would be dropping the car off at noon to be serviced, cleaned, waxed and have its MOT done. I spoke to the garage owner and he recognised Mr Tiny in the photo that I had of him but he said that he had not been seen for a while. **

**I rushed back to tell Larten the news, he was quite impressed at my detective work but of course Larten was not looking forward to going with me to the garage the next day to confront him with me. **

**We did not sleep very well that day, getting up at noon for us was the same as a human rising at midnight, it was hard to do and we were tired but we managed it. **

**We covered ourselves in maximum strength sun block and we wrapped up well, the luck of the vampires must have been with us though because when I looked out of the condemned house's window I saw that it was raining hard and the sky was a deep grey colour, the sun was nowhere to be seen so we put our waterproofs on and we left for the garage that was in the next street. **

**As we arrived Mr Tiny pulled up in his limo and his chauffeur got out and he held an umbrella over Mr Tiny's head so that he did not get wet, the poor chauffeur got soaked to the bone in his non waterproof uniform however.**

**Larten and I waited for Mr Tiny to go inside and then we followed him in to the waiting room. When he sat down we went over to him.**

"**Mr Tiny, my name is Sarah, I need to find the vampaneze boss, and can you help me?" I asked, I was petrified of the strange, straggly looking man.**

"**You are asking me to help you find the vampaneze boss? Well let me think for a moment. I am not telling you vampiress scum anything, now get lost before I turn you into a woodlouse." Mr Tiny said.**

"**I do not think that is a very nice way to talk to my girlfriend Sir, now apologise." Larten said as he appeared by my side with his sword drawn. **

**Lucky that the waiting room was devoid of humans, otherwise it could have been messy.**

"**I am not apologising to any of you scum. You do not deserve to live after what you did to my perfect daughter Evanna" Mr Tiny said.**

"**That was like seventy years ago, we have moved on why can you not do the same Sir?" I asked.**

"**He scarred my daughter, she is disfigured now. He should die because of that" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Well Evanna scarred Larten first, look at the mark he has on his cheek" I said.**

"**Larten should not have tried it on then should he?" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Well Lady Evanna should not have got Larten drunk and then bewitched him with her beauty then, she was asking for it" I replied.**

"**I see, Evanna did not mention that part. It makes no difference though; I am still not going to help you find Steve" Mr Tiny said abruptly. **

"**Fine, have it your way. Come on dear we have wasted enough time here. I am gagging for a feed" I said.**

"**As you wish my love" Larten replied.**

"**I see you have taken another girlfriend. How many is that now? Twenty thirty? You must be running out of blood" Mr Tiny laughed cruelly.**

"**Actually, Sarah is my third vampiress girlfriend, I made her myself and she wears my crest with honour, she wanted me badly. I could not deny her what so many ladies beg me for" Larten explained.**

"**You are not as bad as some of the other vampires then. They go around with no concern for anyone blooding random humans and then they will not be responsible if something goes wrong" Mr Tiny explained. **

"**Seba taught me well Sir; I know what makes a good vampiress." Larten said.**

"**Sarah what are the three main purposes of being a vampiress?" Mr Tiny asked me.**

"**The three vows are to live for the Clan, to fight for the Clan and to die for the Clan, also to increase numbers because we cannot breed" I answered.**

"**Very good, who are the Princes?" Mr Tiny asked.**

"**Mika Ver Leth, Paris Skyle, Vancha March, Darren Shan, Arrow and there would have been Kurda Smalt but the bastard betrayed us" I said.**

"**You know your stuff Sarah. You look like a proper vampiress, where are your scars?" Mr Tiny asked me.**

"**On my fingertips" I said as I held up my hands to show off my scars.**

"**Those scars look tiny" Mr Tiny replied.**

"**Larten saved my life. He killed a rabid bear just before it killed me, I was seriously hurt but I survived because of Larten's skills" I explained.**

"**Very well, you have proven to me that you belong in the Clan but I will not help you destroy my chances of causing a beautiful war between your two clans. I live for war" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Ok, I will track down every vampaneze and eventually I will find who I am looking for" I said.**

"**I doubt it, Steve is well protected. You have no hope. Bye now and Larten for the record next time you choose to try it on with Evanna whether she led you on or not do not attempt it" Mr Tiny warned.**

"**I have no need, Sarah gives me everything I want, and you have no idea what you are missing out on" Larten replied. **

"**Maybe I should sleep with your girlfriend and find out one time" Mr Tiny laughed.**

"**Try it and you die!" Larten threatened.**

"**Me sleep with a vampiress? No way! Vampanesses are so much better in bed. You have not lived until you have had a vampaness in your coffin Larten" Mr Tiny said as he got up to leave.**

"**I think I will stick to my own blood group thank you. Sarah is amazing; you cannot imagine what she can do to me and what I do to her to make her think that she has endured sheer, vampiric love and lust" Larten said as he looked deeply into my eyes. **

"**Yes, you cannot begin to imagine what it feels like to do what we do to each other" I said.**

"**What does it feel like then Sarah? Describe it to me as I am curious" Mr Tiny said.**

"**It is indescribable, you have to experience it to understand it, the power of it, the way we move and become one body that is joined together and every touch feels like paradise, it is so gentle but so powerful, you feel like you have touched the sky and that you are flying because you feel so much of it" I explained.**

"**I see, it sounds like you are a professional Larten, you know how to use a vampiresses' body to maximum effect" Mr Tiny said.**

"**It has taken years to perfect my skills and my art. That is what sex is, it is an art form as well as a skill. I mean to make a vampiress feel like she is touching the sky and flying but at the same time she is still on the ground is no mean feat. I can help a vampiress enter paradise whilst still being alive and I aim to make every touch count by using minimum force in order to cause maximum excitement. That is sheer skill. It is a skill which I have been blessed with" Larten said. **

"**I see now, you are very lucky Sarah. Anyway I have to dash; I have an apocalypse to prepare for" Mr Tiny said. **

**Then Mr Tiny left in his newly cleaned limo and we also left.**

"**That was not as bad as I thought; it is a pity that we did not get much information though" I said.**

"**Yes but at least Mr Tiny did not exact his revenge on me for Evanna. It was clever of you to distract him like that" Larten said.**

"**I was not trying to distract him; I was trying to get him to talk so that I could get information from him" I said.**

"**I see, you are so clever to do both things" Larten said as we headed to our temporary bed, we were tired and hot, also I wanted Larten to make me enter paradise as it felt so good and I needed something to look forward to when I curled up next to the guy that I loved dearly and cared for deeply.**

**I lay down next to Larten and he pulled me close to him. We kissed first then when Larten had finished warming me up he went in for the kill. Larten did things to me that I had never experienced, he caressed my body and every inch of me tingled, he kissed me and he worked his way down my body until he was between my legs, he licked me and he made me shake, he came on top of me and we entwined our bodies like two snakes that were coiled around each other and then we rolled over and over again as one entity, all the time Larten was putting his fluids inside me, I could feel it shooting through me and it made me feel his every touch, we kissed non-stop and it was deep, so deep that I could have choked but Larten knew exactly where to put his tongue so I could get the maximum sensation from it without going too deep into me. **

**I felt like paradise was getting closer, I was tingling and I was shaking. I was getting excited, Larten was slowing down but everything was getting more powerful, I knew that this time was going to be mind blowing so I lay still and I let Larten work his magic on me. He slowed down so that I could feel what he was doing, he was kissing me and he was running his hands all over me, he was still inside me and he was still pumping his fluid into my body, I was moving and writhing to get closer to him, I wanted more so I had to be as close to him as I could possibly be so that I could get maximum sensation in order to make me have an orgasm so powerful that it would feel like an explosion of fluids inside me that would cause us to get a feeling that would make us both think that we had entered paradise whilst still being alive and able to feel everything that we were doing to each other. **

**When we normally made out it was usually quiet but not this time, I was breathing hard and I was begging for the sensation never to end as it was so good, we rolled over a couple more times and then the orgasm finally hit me and I gasped, it was so powerful I felt like I could not breathe, I just lay there and I let the sensation carry me away whilst I could still feel Larten on top of me kissing me, he was still inside of me and he stayed there until the orgasm ended. We kissed and then we stopped, then I lay in Larten's arms and he held me close to him whilst we recovered, it had sapped all of our energy, it had been hours but it was well worth it in the end to achieve an orgasm at such a high level that we could both feel and enjoy.**

**When we eventually awoke we were curled up together and I was extremely drained and tired. I did not want to move, I was happy to be wrapped up under a camping duvet with a silk cover, Larten's cloak and a pillow on an air mattress. We would have slept vampire style but we needed to be comfortable in order to let our muscles recover from what we had done to each other. **

"**Morning dear, how do you feel?" Larten asked me.**

"**I feel like I have been taken to the peak of orgasm and that you made it sensual but unforgettable, you took me to a place that I never thought I could enter, you made my head spin and my heart beat so much I could feel it, it was the best that I have ever felt and you let me experience true paradise and what it feels like to be as one with somebody who you love." I replied.**

"**I felt the same but my experience was different being male, pumping you full of my fluids was for me a release, it strengthens our bond and it makes me feel like we are one entity and for a brief time I believe that our very souls join together and we share the same soul, I feel like we have been forever bonded and it is impossible to separate us." Larten answered. **

"**I feel that as well, anyway we have business to attend to. We must find the vampaneze boss, it is imperative." I said whilst I yawned.**

"**I agree, you had better go back to the sewers, you have been away for days" Larten said.**

"**I will call George and I will tell him what has happened. He will not mind me being away if he thinks that I am doing stuff for the troupe" I explained. **

"**Very well, we need to feed. I am thirsty and you need to keep your strength up" Larten reminded me.**

"**I know darling, I am pretty thirsty so let's go hunting" I suggested, so we did and we had a good feed which both of us needed. **

**I called George and I explained to him what Mr Tiny had said, George told me to search the inner city areas, abandoned buildings, office blocks, council estates and any empty or disused sewage system or underground network. That was where Steve (if that was his real name) was likely to be.**

**I thanked George for his additional information and then I set off again, this time I was on my own as Larten had a show. I had to begin my search for Steve and I wanted so badly to put my dagger through his heart as I had done on the battlefield to his fellow vampaneze thereby stopping a war and hopefully halting Mr Tiny's apocalypse plans for the good of the whole world. **

**As I was in a big city I had miles to search and plenty of choice to choose from when it came to where I would sleep and live. I decided to get a bed and breakfast room that was in the city centre, then I could work my way to the outskirts of the city and beyond until I found who I was looking for. **

**I searched office blocks first as they had several floors and lots of hidden caches where people could hide. The abandoned office block was popular with the illegal immigrants who chose to live in it and drug dealers who used it to hide their loot in while they were out scouting for buyers. **

**I found nothing suspicious except for packages and low life humans who were trying to live on next to nothing. I searched council estates and I searched all of the old sewers and underground network tunnels. I found a couple of dodgy looking humans but they were no threat to me. **

**Mr Tiny had been right, Steve was well hidden and he was very well protected.**

**My phone went off so I answered it;**

"**Hello, who is calling?" I asked.**

"**It's Prince Vancha, how are you?" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Fine thank you Sire, I am searching the council estates for Steve. I am in the city centre, where are you?" I asked.**

"**I am miles away in rural Scotland on holiday. I am enjoying it so far but it is freezing" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**I thought that you were helping me" I said angrily.**

"**I am helping you. I am stopping the vampaneze from crossing the Scottish border because the vampaneze up here have a different jurisdiction than the ones in England. They are stronger too and faster than most" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**So you are on holiday but you are working as well, that is ok. Did you call me for a reason Sire?" I asked.**

"**Only to warn you about vampaneze crossing the border, they may try and get to Wales if they can because then they can cross to Ireland where we cannot touch them. They have a wide network Sarah so watch your back" Prince Vancha warned me.**

"**Well thanks for the heads up Sire, I will keep my eyes and ears open. Maybe we could post a guard on each border line like what you are doing. It may slow them down" I suggested. **

"**I will contact the Clan and I will ask them. It is a good idea. Watch your back, these vampaneze are vicious whether they think that you are on their side or not. Bye for now, I will be in touch" With that Prince Vancha hung up. He was using a call box so there was no point saving his number to my phone as the next time he called it would be a different number. **

**I texted Larten to let him know what Prince Vancha had said and then I continued my search for Steve. He was proving to be very elusive and I had no idea what he looked like, I was searching for a teenage boy with a lust for blood and killing humans. It was like looking for a tiny needle in a very large hay stack. **

**My next idea was to ask different gang members in case he had joined a human gang as a disguise. That was a dangerous move but what choice did I have? I had tried all of the usual things. My only other thought was that Steve was living with Evanna or she had turned him into something to hide him from us until it was too late to stop the war. **

**I was running out of time and options, I was totally stuck, I was also quite ill, I had been travelling and it had taken its toll on me, vampiress or not everyone needs to rest. I had to clear my head, I was tired and fed up of searching. I needed a break so I returned to the circus camp where I could at least put my feet up in safety. **

**I was greeted at the gates by a whole gang of performers who were glad to have me back but Larten was not there. Larten did not pick up his phone either which made me worry a little but never the less I went to our trailer and I let myself in using the key which he had given me. I fed Madam Octa and then I waited for Larten to return, he was probably hunting or having a drink in the local pub which was a popular choice for the circus performers because they were welcomed there in return for tickets to the show. **

**I put my stuff down and I put the TV on, I wanted to watch Crime Watch UK and the evening news before I went to the pub to have a well-deserved drink and a meal. **

**I was not far from a part of the city where a spate of robberies had taken place and a bank had also been broken into. It was scary to think how close we were to people who committed serious crimes. These criminals also dealt drugs and they used vulnerable women as prostitutes to get extra money to buy more drugs. **

**I walked to the pub after the programmes had finished. It was a clear night sky and I could see the stars for the first time in a while as it had been rather cloudy on previous nights. There was a new moon but as it was only a tiny slither it would take about four days before it could be used as a beacon to see by although I had excellent night vision. **

**I got to the pub and it was packed, I had to squeeze through the door in order to get in. There was a live band which everybody had turned out to see. I got a seat at the bar and I listened to the band, they were one of those teen school bands that had a bass guitar, a drum kit and two singers, they were doing covers of pop songs that they had altered slightly to give them more of a rock music sound. They were very good and at the end of their set everybody was clapping and drinking heavily. I searched the bar and I finally found Larten in the corner at a table that had a fair few empty glasses on it, he had obviously been drinking which was fine but he had drunk a lot even for a vampire. **

**I watched him down two more pints and then he stood up and he staggered to the bar for more. To my relief the barman did not serve him again so Larten had no choice but to have a soft drink instead and he had several soft drinks, they included strong coffees and a lot of energy booster drinks. Larten was on a pay night bender and he was pretty funny and very merry. He had not noticed me until I actually stood right in front of him, then he got even merrier, that is to say he was happy that he had a drinking buddy so I joined him in a quart of ale but I knew my limits unlike him. **

**We got back to our trailer and we were wasted, I had downed a bottle of vodka and a couple of bottles of white wine, I had also drunk a few cans of energy drink, I was buzzing but Larten was throwing up, he had drunk way beyond what I had ever seen him consume but it was fine once in a while and he still had a tonne of wages left, that pub was really cheap. **

**We slept in very late, I had a headache and Larten was totally out of it, he had a major hangover and he could not remember anything before I got there except for a couple of songs that had been played by the band which Larten had actually sung along to, it is strange what people do when they are drunk. I myself had sung but I did not know all of the songs as some were new and they were not in the style of music that I normally listened to. **

**I did not know a cure for hangovers so I left Larten to sleep it off. Larten was grouchy when he eventually woke up which made me laugh because it was his fault, nobody had made him drink the amount that he had done and now he was suffering for it. **

**I was ok, I had not drunk nowhere near as much as Larten, I had a bit of a headache but I did not throw up. By the time I had got up and I was properly awake I felt fine. I had something to eat and then I had to prepare for the show, it was our last one before we moved on to a new town so we had to pack everything up afterwards. **

**I took Madam Octa out and I let her stretch her eight legs. She needed some exercise so I took her to a deserted area and I let her have a good walk around, she climbed up a flag pole and she stayed on top of it for ages before she crawled back down again. I trusted her but I had to be careful, she perched on my shoulder and she stayed there for ages before she moved, I sat down and she climbed down my chest and onto my hand where she was motionless for ages until a fly buzzed past her and she struck, she caught it in mid-flight with her mouth and she made a quick meal of it. I was amazed, I did not know quite how bright this spider was, she was able to take care of herself quite nicely which was a good thing. I took her back to her terrarium after a good hour or so and I gave to her what was her favourite snack, a whole piece of pizza as a treat, she loved it and I am sure that it tasted better than insects. Madam Octa held up her two front legs towards me and she stood up on her others, it was like she was saluting me or something, she was so clever. **

**I asked Larten about it when he had recovered from his drinking session.**

"**I took Madam Octa out earlier, she had a good run around and when I put her back into her terrarium she held up her front legs and she looked like she was standing. Does it mean something?" I asked.**

"**Well that is her way of saying thank you. I taught her that when she was tiny. I guess she likes you. I bet she climbed up a flag pole, she loves to be high up, I think it is so she can see what is going on" Larten replied.**

"**Well she scrambled up a flag pole, stayed there until I called her down and then she sat in my hand. A fly flew past and she caught it and ate it on the spot. It was so cool" I replied.**

"**I taught her to catch flies like that because when I was travelling I got fed up of them buzzing around me" Larten explained. **

"**That is pretty smart" I replied. **

"**Well I had to think of some way to stop flies from landing on me and biting me, any creature who feeds on me ends up like me but a super-fast, extra strong fly is one thing that I do not want around for obvious reasons" Larten explained.**

"**That makes sense, flies can be annoying at the best of times but a fly with vampire blood in it would be very annoying" I agreed. **

"**That is one possible reason why that bear attacked you, maybe it had eaten a vampire corpse or a vampaneze corpse and it went mad, it looked like it had rabies but quite often animals that eat vampire corpses or drink our blood by accident look like that. I have seen it a few times but never in a bear like that, that was very dangerous for all concerned" Larten said.**

"**I am glad that I survived, killing it was probably the best thing that you could have done for it" I said. **

"**I had no option; I had to make a split second decision to save you and to protect others who were using the same path" Larten said. **

"**I agree, anyway have you recovered yet? You drank a lot last night. In fact you drank so much that nobody could believe it, it must have been a record" I asked.**

"**I am fine now but I will not be drinking again like that for a while, it was pretty fun though. It is nice to have a carefree night of freedom occasionally. I love my life but every so often I need to be able to let my rather short hair down as it were" Larten said. **

"**Fair enough, the band was good but I think that they were freaked out a little by some of us. I guess that they had not performed to a crowd like ours" I said.**

"**I guess not but everybody liked them, it was a great way to spend my pay night, I see that you had a good time too. I hope that you are ok" Larten enquired.**

"**I am fine, I did not drink a lot, I stuck to energy drinks to keep going all night long, and we did not finish partying until midday" I explained.**

"**Was it that late? I had no idea" Larten said.**

"**Yes we stayed up all night and when we went back to the trailer the sun was beating down on us, it was quite a hot day. I am glad that we did not stay any longer than we did, it was a scorcher of a day" I said.**

"**At least we have a clear night to perform in, have you prepared for the show?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes, I have packed up too because we are moving on tonight, except I will have to start searching for Steve again soon" I said looking upset at the thought of leaving Larten again.**

"**It is time for the show soon, as long as you have prepared everything it should be fine. It is a shame that you have to continue your search for Steve. I wish that you could stay with the circus, the crowds love you" Larten said.**

"**I know but orders are orders, I cannot let the Clan down can I dear?" I asked.**

"**No, you are correct, you must follow your orders and I must stay and perform but we will be together again soon, have no doubt of that" Larten reassured me.**

"**I know, I just hate leaving you, it is really hard on me, to think that I have to live in a sewer with a troupe of enemies and play the part of a vampaneze supporter makes me mad but I have no choice" I said ruefully. **

"**You do a good job though and it will not be for long. We will soon be back in our hayloft where we belong. I have some holiday time soon anyway so we can go away if you like, I know of a great destination" Larten said.**

"**Oh? Where is that?" I asked interested.**

"**I will tell you nearer the time, but it is a great place, vampire friendly and not a vampaneze in sight" Larten replied.**

"**Sounds like a great spot for a holiday. I will look forward to it" I said.**

"**It is quite expensive though, we will have to save up" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right ok, I have a fair bit of money, anyway we are due on stage soon. We had best get into position" I said as we left for the stage door. **

**Being the last night before we moved on we had a huge crowd to perform for, we had all of the pub staff in as well as the regular audience. **

**Tonight Larten and I were on first, we did a different routine to normal as it was the last night, we wanted to give the crowd something to remember. We had one difference because normally we were introduced as;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen may I present Mr Crepsley with his spider Madam Octa and his assistant Sarah." but tonight Mr Tall introduced us as;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen I give you Mr Crepsley, his girlfriend and assistant Sarah and their spider Madam Octa"**

**Why Mr Tall had changed the introduction was odd considering that the regular one was fine but as usual we performed to perfection. We did a trapeze act with a few gymnastics moves, then we performed with the spider, tonight Madam Octa danced and she did a bit of a weight lifting act which was a new bit that Larten had only recently taught her but she did her best to get it right and do the right bit in the right place. **

**After we had finished our act we went and sat down in the performers' box to watch the rest of the show, we had not seen the new acts so it was quite entertaining to watch them perform their tricks and stunts.**

**As it was the last show before we moved on we did a question and answer session, it was something to do with getting a good reputation and good PR so that we would have more audiences which meant more money for us and a better outlook on life for those who had nothing. **

**Mr Tall was good with the public, we had set up a long table and chairs and everybody sat at it and took questions from the audience. It was quite fun actually. I enjoyed it, even the Wolfman sat down and let people stroke him if they wanted to, he was sort of hypnotised but trained as well, it was freaky. **

**We got a lot of people asking about Madam Octa's origin and where people could get a spider like her, also we had people wishing to hold her which we could not permit due to safety reasons but we did let certain people stroke her if they seemed to be worthy. Madam Octa chose people by holding her leg up and almost pointing to people, she was well aware of who she could allow to touch her as she could sense their intentions before they came near her, she got a positive response from the audience, the crowd all said how clever and how remarkably pretty she was.**

**We did get a few hard questions, some we could not answer as we did not know but it was the teenage girls who were the best, and they put Larten on the spot. Some of their queries were quite embarrassing. **

**One very sick girl asked if she could have something of Larten's as a keepsake and as a lucky charm to remind her of the show but Larten had nothing on him to give to her so he asked me;**

"**What do I do dear? I can see how much she is a fan of mine. I have nothing to give to her but as she is so sick she needs some sort of good memory to look back on"**

"**Well there is one thing that you could give which would be very special given the circumstances, you could kiss her" I suggested in a whisper.**

"**You would not mind?" Larten asked me.**

"**This girl is very sick, her mother says that she needs a kidney transplant, she may not live much longer so maybe you could give her something that she will never forget" I said.**

"**Very well in these circumstances, I think that is acceptable" Larten said.**

"**Ladies and gentlemen, this lady is very sick, she may die and as she is a fan of mine I cannot let her leave here with nothing. I have decided to give her something unique that she will never forget" Larten said.**

"**Thank you so much. I am shaking like a leaf" The girl said, she really was struggling to stand as she was so nervous and excited. **

"**What is your name?" Larten asked.**

"**Jodie, I need a kidney transplant. I am very sick" said the girl.**

"**I know, your mother told me. I know too how much you like horror that is why you came here tonight. Your dream is to meet a real vampire is it not Jodie?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes, I was told that they are very nice and that their blood could make me well again" Jodie said.**

"**Alas vampire blood will not cure you but I am a real vampire. So too is Sarah there" Larten said as he held up his hands to show his scars.**

"**That is so cool; I thought you were, I had a feeling. I knew that you were different somehow" Jodie said.**

"**Well tonight you have achieved your dream of meeting a real vampire and now you get a kiss from one" Larten said. **

"**Seriously you are actually going to kiss me?" Jodie asked.**

"**Yes if you wish me to, I hope that is ok" Larten said.**

"**You mean I get a real kiss from a real vampire?" Jodie asked excitedly.**

"**Yes, I thought that it would be a good memory for you" Larten said.**

"**I have never been kissed by anybody; I have no idea what I have to do" Jodie admitted.**

"**I will instruct you, I will make it worthwhile" Larten said.**

"**Very well, a real kiss from a real vampire it is" Jodie said.**

**Larten then lead Jodie by the hand to the back stage area.**

"**So this is the back stage area? It is nice" Jodie said.**

"**I thought that a private lesson was appropriate, prying eyes can be off putting." Larten explained.**

"**I see, I am still very nervous and I cannot stop shaking" Jodie said.**

"**Do not think about anything. Close your eyes and let me lead" Larten said.**

"**Ok, what happens during the kiss?" Jodie asked.**

"**Well I will enclose my mouth around yours, I will then pulse inside you slowly, you do the same and then I will finish it off" Larten explained.**

"**Pulse you mean using tongues?" Jodie asked.**

"**Yes in a manner not too much though because you could not handle it if I went too deep" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right, it sounds nice. I hope I really feel it" Jodie said as she stood closer to Larten. **

"**Believe me when I say it will be the best experience of your life so far" said Larten as he made his move. Larten then kissed Jodie deeply with his vampiric passion but not so much as to overwhelm her, he did it in the same way that he kissed me normally. **

"**That was amazing. I loved that, you were right as that was the best experience that I have had so far in my life" Jodie said.**

"**I am happy that you liked it" Larten replied.**

**When Jodie stepped out from the back stage area with Larten beside her about ten minutes later she looked so happy. **

**When Jodie could speak again and when everybody else had left I asked;**

"**How was it? Did you enjoy kissing a vampire?" **

"**It was great, Mr Crepsley held me and he kissed me, I felt like my head was spinning but I could feel everything that he did to me, he is one in a million" Jodie replied.**

"**That is my Larten alright, I get that feeling too. Anyway we have to go now but I hope that you get the transplant that you need and I will come and see you in the hospital if you like" I offered.**

"**Really you would visit me?" Jodie asked.**

"**Yes, we are not bad people; we just drink a little blood to survive. We are known for our charitable natures" I explained.**

"**I will see you at some point then, bye Sarah, bye Mr Crepsley" Jodie called back to us as she walked away with her mother behind her. **

**Normally that would not be done under any circumstances but because Jodie was so ill we made an exception for her. Jodie was sixteen and she had never been kissed so it was to her a very special moment, I gave out pictures and free tickets for the next show to the other girls before they left, I also let them take photos of Madam Octa which was a privilege as normally cameras were not allowed. Madam Octa did not mind, in fact I could swear that she posed for some of the photos. **

**I was proud of Larten's generosity. I had no idea that Larten would help a human to feel what Jodie felt. It was nice of Larten to do that, I did not know that he was so good natured towards humans, I guess that he felt sorry for her as she could die before she got to experience what it is like to kiss somebody. **

**I did not mind, Jodie seemed like the sort of human who deserved a once in a lifetime experience, it sounded like she had endured a rough life so far and as she was so sick it was good to give her something that she could remember and then she would feel special when she was feeling ill or if she was having a bad time. **

**I regrettably had to return to the sewers; George was expecting me so I had to go. I was upset but I had no option. I had to do this for the Clan, everybody was relying on me. **

**I was sad to leave Larten but I had no option, he could not go with me as it would have blown my cover and that I could not risk as it would have resulted in my death. **

**I packed up my bags and I left the camp, everybody else had already gone but it was easier for me to make my way from where I was rather than going from where the camp was going to next because it would have been miles out of my way.**

**I returned to the sewers just as the sun was coming up. I had travelled all night and as a result I was shattered. I pulled up the manhole cover and I climbed down the ladder, I was back in the disused sewer pipe. I was greeted by a rather large rat as I entered; it took one sniff and went back to where it had come from. **

**I could hear voices coming from down the tunnel so I went down it and sure enough I ended up in George's make shift living room. He was so pleased to have me back; the rat which I had met at the tunnel entrance was now in the tunnel where we had set up home. I sat on the sofa, the rat scrambled up on the sofa, it sat on my lap and it went to sleep. **

"**I see that my rodent friend likes you Sarah" George said.**

"**Yes, what is his name?" I asked.**

"**This rat has no name, you can name him" George said.**

"**Well I will call him Aeris." I said. **

"**Aeris well I must say that is an odd name for a rat" George said.**

"**It is a Pagan name, it means strength and loyalty" I said.**

"**Oh well that suits him" George said.**

"**I am shattered; the sun has come up so I am going to bed. I have travelled all night to get back to you." I explained as I went to my room. **

**Aeris felt me move and he woke up, he washed himself and then he squeaked. I went to my room and he followed behind me, I let him onto my bed and he curled up again, this time he slept next to me and when I awoke he was still there as if he was guarding me or something for he was the biggest rat that I had ever seen in my life. **

**From his nose to his tail tip Aeris was about a foot long, he was lovely but he was also greedy and he expected to eat off of my plate after I had finished my food. I let him because if I did not he would squeak really loudly and he would not stop until I had fed him my scraps. **

**It was not uncommon to share a bed with rats as they and we have an affinity but it could be annoying, if you let one rat in then they all wanted to come in so in the end instead of having one rat curled up next to me I had loads and they shredded my duvet cover to make their own nest which really pissed me off, the duvet was brand new and it ended up with baby rats poking out of it everywhere, I had to be careful where I lay on it in case I squashed any babies by accident.**

**If I moved they all moved and one evening I got up to find a rat asleep on my pillow. It had curled up right next to my head. I felt its whiskers on my cheek and that had disturbed me. **

**Another time the rats had piled on top of me and on top of each other, they were moving around and playing all night so all I could feel was a constant squirming sensation where they were wriggling so much and running under my new covers. **

**In the end I had enough, I threw them all out except for Aeris and I locked my door so that they could no longer get in and stop me from sleeping. **

**All the time Aeris was getting bigger, he slept at the foot of my bed or he slept next to me in a little bed that I had made for him, it looked like a dog bed but it was rat sized, it was made out of an old fleece and an old sheet that I had cut up into pieces and stitched together into a bed shape. **

**I stayed with the troupe for another six months before I finally found the one piece of information that I needed. It turned out that Steve had planned to visit the troupe, he had received a letter inviting him to stay with us temporarily and that meant that I was finally going to meet him and get my opportunity to slay him before it was too late. **

**I phoned the Generals and Larten who had been waiting for news. We now had to think of an attack plan or a way to get Steve alone so that we could slay him. After that was done I could go back to my life in the hayloft or be on the road with the circus and therefore stick with Larten and be by his side where I belonged. **

**I had to clean the disused sewer from top to bottom, I had to get rid of the rats and above all I had to show Steve that he could trust me and then he would hopefully accept me into the troupe as one of his own and not kill me for being a vampiress. I was very nervous but I had my duties to keep me occupied besides if I looked nervous the troupe may have started asking questions and that could spell disaster for us all. I was so tired because I had not fed for ages. I was too busy to think about it. **

"**George, are you up for a hunt? I am gagging for a feed" I asked.**

"**Sure. Are you thirsty guys?" George asked the troupe. **

"**Hell yeah, let us go and hunt. It has been a while so we all need a good feed" One vampaneze said. **

"**Alright, I will grab my coat and we'll go" George replied as we all vaulted up the ladder to the manhole cover that lead out onto the streets where we would find our meal. **

**I broke into a block of flats; using my nails to pick the padlock open we went through the gate, into the block and upstairs until we came to a door. I opened it in silence and stealth and we all split up to feed, one watched whilst we fed then we swapped over. I hated killing humans, it was not my way, not my clan's way either but I had to feed like a vampaness so I reluctantly took the life of a guy in his mid-twenties. He was good looking too as humans go. I drained him dry and then I went to guard the door so that George could feed. Secretly I was crying inside, I regretted my actions and I prayed that the vampire gods would not punish me for what I had to do. **

**I waited until I was in my room back in the sewers and then I burst into tears. These were genuine tears of regret, I was not a murderer and killing that guy was hard for me. I would have to have that on my conscience for the rest of my life. **

"**Sarah, what's wrong?" George asked me.**

"**Oh nothing I had a bad dream George" I lied.**

"**Did you? What did you dream?" George asked.**

"**That Steve Leopard was killed by a vampire and that I could not save him" I wept.**

"**Aww, come here. You really are a vampaness if you feel like that. That must have been a horrible dream" George replied.**

"**It was, I fear that our clan will fall. I am scared for our troupe George. We need to increase our numbers" I said.**

"**We will increase our numbers, when Steve arrives there will be a mass blooding. We are due to receive at least one hundred new recruits as it were. Steve will sort it; you do not need to fear" George replied.**

"**Oh well that is ok then. Anyway I am going back to bed now; I will see you at sunset. Good day" I said as I curled up under Larten's cloak and my covers. **

**With that George left me and I slept but not before I had sent a message to Vancha to warn him of the vampaneze's plans to hold a mass blooding. **

**I awoke a little after sunset and I fixed breakfast for the troupe, then I put on my best robes because Steve was due to arrive tonight and I had to look my best. I was apprehensive but excited. I hope that he accepted me because if he did not accept me then the whole vampire clan would suffer for it. The sewers had been cleaned out thoroughly. I had made the place immaculate and it had been decorated with vampaneze banners and welcoming gifts were everywhere. We had clumped together to get Steve a range of things including weapons and humans to blood and feed from. **

**Eventually Steve and his entourage arrived and we met a whole load of new vampaneze who were called Gannen Harst and Hooky and there were a few others. Steve really was a teenage boy. He had the body of an eighteen year old but he was a fair bit older than that. He had become vampaneze because he had been betrayed by his best friend Darren. I knew that it was not the case because Larten had told me the real story but I went along with it. **

"**Steve, may I introduce you to Sarah? She is the rogue vampiress that I mentioned to you a while back" George asked.**

"**Sarah, come here please" Steve asked me.**

"**Yes Steve?" I replied.**

"**I have heard a lot about you, you left the vampire clan because your blood lust was too high for them, now you want me to accept you into the vampaneze clan. Is this correct?" Steve asked.**

"**Yes, it is correct. I have to kill to satisfy my blood lust. I hope that I will be accepted into this troupe because we get along so well" I explained.**

"**Are there any other reasons why I should accept you?" Steve asked.**

"**Well I want revenge on the vampire who blooded me. He did not even ask me he forced himself upon me and I wanted to be vampaness not a vampiress but I can never be that now thanks to him" I said.**

"**Very well, you shall have your revenge. Welcome to the troupe Sarah. I can see that you have the heart of a true vampaness. Your blood is that of the enemy though, however I will overlook this fact because I think that we are similar and I can see what an asset you would be to my clan" Steve explained. **

"**Let's hear it for Sarah, the adopted vampaness. Welcome and by the way just so you are aware I have your back" Steve said above all of the cheering and cat calling. **

**We then settled down to a feast provided by myself. We had humans hanging up on chains just waiting to be fed from. We feasted long after the sun had risen, it was a messy business cleaning up but we had such fun. **

**I prepared a four course meal as well as the fresh blood. The next night we were so full up and tired that we all sat down and played cards or watched TV, we were too lazy to do anything else. Steve had a great time. He was very impressed with our troupe. **

**I had to report back to Prince Vancha somehow. Then an idea hit me, I told the troupe that we were short of alcohol so I went out to get some more so that we could play drinking games. I was not gone long but it was long enough to tell Vancha what I needed to tell him. Now we had to hatch a plan to get Steve alone so that we could kill him and prevent the war that Des Tiny had been planning for so long. **

**I returned to the troupe with shot glasses and a couple of bottles of strong spirits and lots of cans of beer. We all sat around our "borrowed" table and chairs and played drinking games until we were paralytic and too drunk to move. It was so much fun but I knew what I had to do. **

"**Steve, can I talk to you alone please?" I asked when he had recovered from his hangover.**

"**Certainly, hang on a second" Steve said.**

**We went outside into the cool night air, the sky was cloudy but it was not raining. **

"**Steve, this may sound premature but would you do me the honour of being my mate?" I asked.**

"**Actually I wanted to ask you the same thing. Yes I will be your mate. Come on, there is something that you have to see" Steve said as he flit ahead. I followed him not knowing what to expect. **

**Steve led me to a lovely bridge in a park and we walked around like a pair of loved up teenagers hand in hand until dawn. We of course kissed and then we mated. I felt awful but I did not let it show. Now that phase one of my plans was complete it was time for phase two of my plan…killing Steve Leopard! I had no idea how I was going to do it but then an idea struck me. I could poison him and no one would suspect me because I could poison the whole troupe then I could leave and go back to the Cirque Du Freak and there I could be reunited with Larten. **

**I had an idea on how I could poison the troupe but it would take a lot of organising but if it worked it would prevent the war which we were all trying desperately to avoid. **

**My plan was simple but it would take a while. I had to get someone to return to the mountain and collect the six bottles of poisoned wine that had been given to the Princes by Kurda Smalt as part of his betrayal plan. They had been gathered as evidence and locked away but they were still as lethal as ever. My plan was to open them and propose a toast to Steve Leopard and then give them to the troupe as a gift. They would drink them and drop down dead and I could then flit to the Cirque Du Freak and our troubles would be over.**

**It would take time but I was sure that it would work. The troupe trusted me, in their eyes I was one of them so why would I betray them? **

**I phoned Vancha to let him know of my plan and he set off for the mountain with the plan fixed firmly in his mind, we would rendezvous at a later date to pull it off. I told Larten of my idea and he could not believe how ingenious it was. He was of course willing to help out and many of the performers wanted to get involved but they could not get involved for obvious reasons. **

**A/N This next chapter is for the person who gave me my first review of my story Larten's one night stand. Thanks for your review; this chapter is dedicated to you.**


	16. Chapter 16 Killing Steve Leopard

**Chapter 16 Killing Steve Leopard**

**I was quite nervous about pulling off this plan but I had done a lot worse in the past and besides I had to do something to stop Des Tiny from bringing about the apocalypse. That night I returned to the sewers and I had to act normal so as not to raise anybody's suspicions. **

"**Hi Sarah" Steve said**

"**Hi Steve, are you ok?" I asked.**

"**Yes I am fine. I hope that you will be sticking around because we need you" Steve replied.**

"**Well I am intending to stick around as I have nothing better to do and besides I heard that there is a lot of vampire activity so I will dispatch as many as I can ok?" I asked.**

"**Yes that's fine by me. The only good vampire is a dead vampire" Steve growled.**

"**I know what that traitor did to you and I am sorry for it but we will have our revenge" I said.**

"**Yes we will have that alright. We will avenge Kurda and take over the mountain as our own" Steve said.**

"**Yes that would show those vampires who is the superior race" I said.**

"**Anyway I am off hunting now. Would you care to join me?" Steve asked smiling wickedly.**

"**Of course Steve I am starving" I replied as we left for a hunt.**

**We hunted well and we brought down a couple of humans and we took one back for the troupe and we shared the other. It cut me up inside but I had no choice. I needed blood as much as Steve did and I could not risk looking suspicious. **

**I hoped secretly that it would not take Vancha long to return to where we were with the poisoned wine. It would take Vancha a couple of months at most. In the meantime I had to act like the rogue vampiress that I had been for the past few months. It had been hard playing the part and killing humans but I had no choice. **

**Luckily for me I had been able to keep in touch with the clan via my mobile phone. I have no idea how I would have coped if I had not been able to speak to or see Larten because I missed him so much.**

**Larten and I were complete opposites but we suited each other. I was young, he was old, I was soft hearted and good natured, Larten was moody and bad tempered most of the time and his heart was a hard as steel; only Arra and I had managed to melt it but that was down to sheer skill and pure vampiric lust. Larten was the best thing that had ever happened to me; I had learned a lot from him and he had learned a lot from me too. **

**To be without him was to be hollow because Larten was my whole world. Larten was my first thought when I woke up at sunset and the last thought when I went to bed at sunrise. **

**I did not want to be away from Larten for much longer. It was ripping me apart inside but I of course concealed this from the troupe because they thought that Larten was dead due to the fact that I had his cloak as a trophy of my supposed kill. **

**Eventually Prince Vancha arrived at our secret meeting place with the six bottles of poisoned wine that Kurda had planned to use to murder the Princes after his own investiture but because of my discovery I had been able to raise the alarm in time and therefore save the Princes from certain death. **

**The wine was laced with a rare plant named hemlock which is tasteless and lethal to anyone who eats or drinks its juices. In order to use the poison you would distil the plant's juices and add it to food or wine. The poison is quick and virtually undetectable by smell or by other means. **

**It was the perfect poison to use given the circumstances and I could not wait for it all to be over so that I could return to Larten and my beloved hay loft. I met Prince Vancha at our secret meeting place which was near to the park. **

"**Good evening. It is good to see you looking so well." I said as Vancha arrived.**

"**Likewise Sarah, here is the wine that you require. I hope that the plan goes ok. I cannot wait to have you back with us where you belong. We need you Sarah" Vancha said.**

"**Well my place is with Larten and the Cirque Du Freak. I will return to the mountain though if it is required" I responded. **

"**Good but anyway I had better be going. I have seen Larten. He told me to tell you how much he misses you and that he cannot wait to see you again. I wrote a letter for him because as you know his English writing is not that good, he dictated it to me so here you are" Vancha said as he handed me the letter. **

**I started reading it and it was as though Larten was reading it to me. I could hear his voice and it was really strange. The letter said;**

**Sarah,**

**I am writing this to try and communicate with you. I miss you so badly it is unbearable for me. I am a fair few miles away but I am still with you. I love you and though I do not say it often I mean it. **

**You mean so much to me and when we reunite I hope that I will not be parted from you for as long as what we have been. I have no battery on my phone so I cannot call you. I love you lots and soon we will be together.**

**Larten**

"**Sire I am missing Larten so much. I wish that he was here with me because I would tell him exactly how I feel about him" I said quietly.**

"**I am sure that Larten is a lot closer than what you think that he is. If he could hear you what would you tell him?" Prince Vancha asked me.**

"**I would tell him that I love him and that I just want him to hold me close and flit me somewhere so that we could hunt or do some other thing so that we could spend some time together" I said in response.**

"**Look behind you" Prince Vancha instructed me.**

"**Why? Is there danger?" I asked.**

"**No but trust me when I say that you would be wise to turn around" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Very well Sire. I will turn around" I said as I did so and I nearly fell backwards because coming towards me was a figure that was clad in red from head to foot and he was walking at speed to get to where I was standing. **

**It was Larten who was walking towards me and I could not help but go all funny inside. I really could not stand up properly because I was shaking and tingling all over. I had missed Larten a lot and now to have him near me was just too much for me to cope with. **

**Prince Vancha put his hands around my waist to hold me up because my legs were like jelly where I was so excited. I could feel the adrenaline ripping through my veins like electricity going through a cable before a massive power surge. **

**I was really happy to see Larten and I figured out that Prince Vancha must have planned this all along because I was so shocked to see Larten. He had obviously flit a long way but now that he was about a hundred metres or so away from me he stopped still and in the darkness I could make out his face and his infamous scar. I walked closer and I was still very wobbly on my feet but I managed to get to him and after all I had been through a lot worse in my life so walking when wobbly was not that much of a challenge for me. **

"**I am so happy to see you at long last. It has been weeks since I saw you and I am close to succeeding with my mission. The vampaneze will be dead soon" I said. **

**I held Larten close to me because I was freezing and I had wanted him to hold me for so long. **

"**I have missed you a lot my beloved. I was going crazy without you. I hope that your plan works because the Cirque Du Freak needs you. I need you Sarah and I have flit a long way to see you" Larten replied as we kissed each other for the first time in weeks.**

"**I have missed you tonnes too. I cannot wait to re-join you at the Cirque Du Freak because I miss performing on the stage with you" I replied.**

"**Anyway I had better go now because you have to get back to the troupe. I am staying in a hotel so I can charge my phone up then you can call me when the deed is done" Larten replied as he and Vancha flitted away in a blur of green and red. **

**The green was Prince Vancha's straggly hair which had always been green because he used it as additional camouflage when he was hunting. Prince Vancha wore animal skins and he lived in the wilds of the mountain and he was only in the mountain when he had business to attend to because he was a Prince after all. **

**I returned to the sewers with the bottles of wine and I gathered everybody around.**

"**Hey guys come here. I have an idea" I said.**

"**Yes Sarah what is it?" Hooky asked.**

"**I have a plan to throw a huge party for all the vampaneze because it is Steve's birthday soon. It must be a surprise though" I explained.**

"**What a brilliant idea Sarah. You could book out the local hall or night club and we can all pile in there and party all night long" George responded.**

"**As I understand it there are a lot of vampaneze so we will have to invite all of them and make sure that nobody is left out" I replied.**

"**Well I have an address book and listed in it is all of the vampaneze phone numbers and sewer locations so we know where to take the invitations" Hooky replied.**

"**Excellent Hooky that is brilliant. Can you help me with the food and booze?" I asked.**

"**Yeah that is no trouble. You could get George and a couple of others to deliver invitations while we sort out the rest of the entertainment and the food. We will need a fair amount of food and plenty of blood" Hooky responded.**

"**I agree. Steve will love it but it must be a complete secret" I said as we all set to work. It was an ideal way to poison the whole clan in one hit and I knew exactly how to do it. **

**It would be a fantastic way to get rid of the vampaneze in one night and then I could return to Larten afterwards. I was so glad that I had an ideal cover story and Steve would not suspect a thing which meant that he could not raise the alarm. His entire clan would be in one place and it would be hard for Steve to do anything against the vampires or against me because I would be there looking amazing as Steve's mate or so he thought anyway. **

**I could not wait to start organising the party. It was going to be held in the local night club. I hired out the VIP rooms and ordered several boxes of champagne to share out. I would poison each bottle and then I would make some punch which would be shared out also. It took a couple of weeks to organise the party because it was such a huge event. We were celebrating the Vampaneze Lord's birthday and that was a major event for all of us including me because I had to organise it and I had to pull off my plan too. **

**Eventually everything was prepared and the entire vampaneze clan headed off to the local night club where we would be celebrating in style or we would be until the poisons kicked in and the vampaneze clan dropped down dead and left me unharmed. **

"**Hello and welcome everybody. I hope that you enjoy yourselves at Steve's surprise party. I will go and get him and remember what we discussed" I said as I left to go and get Steve.**

"**Hey Steve are you ready to go out?" I asked Steve.**

"**Yes I am so let's go" Steve replied. He was wearing a tuxedo and I had a brand new dress on that Steve had bought for me. I liked it but it was nowhere near as good as the dresses that Larten had bought for me in the past. **

**Steve and I headed across the road to the night club. Steve thought we were just having a regular night out in the VIP areas but we were having so much more than that with food, free drinks and strippers. **

**We walked into the VIP section and the entire vampaneze clan were standing around waiting for us to arrive. We had set up the food and drinks on four long tables around the edge of the room. We had decorations hung up and we had waiters going around offering us champagne and blood. I had got the strippers and dancers to perform in the centre of the room before we hung them up on the ceiling and slaughtered them as a centrepiece. I hypnotised them first so that they were totally unaware of what was going on around them.**

**Then the music started and we all started partying and then I got up on the stage. It was time for me to make a speech and raise a toast to Steve so I said;**

"**Can I have everybody's attention please? It has come time to make a speech. If I can say a few words now it will make me a better public speaker. I love you and I am honoured to be your mate. I hope that we can get revenge on the vampire scum that ruined my chances of being a vampaness. I am glad that you all made it here safely and now I would like to raise a toast to the birthday guy Steve. May you rule over us for a long time and keep us safe from vampires who would seek to harm us" at this point everybody raised their glasses and they started to drink the poisoned wines and spirits. I had separate bottles for myself that I had marked so I knew that they were safe to drink. **

**Around an hour later the clan members started getting tired and they were sitting down around the edge of the room on the benches that had been provided and as they slipped into unconsciousness I could see Steve was among them. **

**Steve was not dead but he was certainly unwell. I went over to him and passed him a glass of water that had been poisoned with the hemlock juice and another chemical named Thallium which was tasteless and odourless and that was enough to finish Steve off; he threw up and then he collapsed. By this point most of the others were dead and those who weren't were too sick or too paralysed to move because I had used a mixture of all different poisons to get the desired effect. Eventually it was all over and every single vampaneze and vampet was dead. I could not believe that the plan had worked so well and afterwards the Generals and I cleaned up the VIP rooms and we got rid of every trace of vampaneze. Nobody would ever know what happened except for us. **

"**What a mess Sarah. We will never get this cleaned up in time. You know how to have a party but you have no idea about keeping the venue tidy" one of the generals complained as he carried the dead bodies outside to be buried. **

"**I had to do what was necessary to succeed" I called out.**

**It took us hours to clean up but eventually the VIP rooms were spick and span and there were no traces of poison or vampaneze left at all. We then left the club and I did the only thing that I could do. I leapt into the air and celebrated the end of the vampaneze before I flitted to where Larten was waiting for me. **

"**Hello. I am so glad to see you safe and sound Sarah. I hope that we can go back to the mountain now unless you want to go back to the Cirque Du Freak. The choice is yours Sarah" Larten said as we returned to our hay loft home which I had missed so much. I got into our bed and slept next to Larten for the first time in what seemed like forever. **

**The next evening I woke up and decided that I would like to return to the mountain so I went to tell Larten but he was not around. I phoned him but he did not answer so I waited for him but he did not come back to the hay loft. I phoned Mr Tall to find out where the Cirque Du Freak was.**

"**Hi Mr Tall is Larten with you at the moment? Only I cannot get hold of him at all and we were supposed to be going back to the mountain together" I asked.**

"**Well Larten is here but he is with some other girl called Samantha. She is his new assistant and they are bonding well. I thought that you knew" Mr Tall replied.**

"**No I had no idea at all. I will head to the mountain alone then if Larten has left me" I responded. I was trying hard not to cry but inside I was shattered because I had been away from Larten for so long and now he had gone and abandoned me.**

"**I am sorry that you had to find out like this Sarah" Mr Tall said.**

"**It is not your fault Mr Tall. Thank you for telling me. If you see Larten tell him that I am going to the mountain and tell him that he has broken my heart" I replied.**

"**Ok I will pass the message on Sarah bye" Mr Tall said.**

"**Bye; see you soon" I said and then I flitted to the mountain where I belonged. I walked into the halls and everyone was surprised to see me; nobody had expected me to be at the mountain and alone. **

**Nobody could believe what had happened when I explained about what Larten had done to me. Every single clan member was shocked and they could see how much that I was hurting. **

**I asked for new quarters and I got all of my stuff out of my old rooms and I put it into my new room which was considerably smaller but it was only for me. I spent my time cleaning and duelling to take my mind off of the pain that I was feeling. **

**I went down to the halls for some food, I was starving and I had neglected myself. I was in a right mess and I was but a shell of who I had been before. I ate in silence and everyone could see how much that I had been affected, nobody knew what to do. I spent most of my time on the Bars. I defeated lots of people and with each victory I felt stronger but my heart had a huge Larten shaped hole in it that I felt would never be filled. **

**A few nights after I had arrived at the mountain, I was standing on the Bars waiting for a challenge when to my surprise and disbelief Larten came into the Halls of Sport. He had a girl with him but she was nothing like me, she was ginger and freckled. This girl was tiny and she could not have been more than fourteen or fifteen. She was dressed in fine clothes, similar to what I had but hers were a different shade of red to mine. I saw that she had a heart shaped locket around her neck and the tell-tale signs of Larten on her neck. **

**I could not believe that Larten had left me for this tiny, freckled, pitiful excuse for a vampiress. I guessed that this vampiress was Samantha whom Mr Tall had mentioned. **

**I could not even look at Larten I just stood on top of the Bars and I let the tears flow. I hopped up onto the top bar and I looked down at how high up I was. I was about twenty or thirty feet off of the ground. I took my dagger and sliced my wrists until the blood spilled profusely. I jumped without thinking about it and as I fell I called out;**

"**I cannot believe what you have done to me Larten. I am upset and angry right now that I must do this because I cannot go on living. My death is because of you and now my blood will be on your hands. Even in death may my tortured soul find Paradise and may I be triumphant" I had my eyes closed and I thought that I was near the end when I felt something catch me. I opened my blurry eyes to see Larten's hands around me. He closed the wounds on my wrists and he flit me to the medical wing. I was put into a bed and then everything went blank. **

**I woke up with the chief medic looking down on me. I could not really remember anything but the scars on my wrists told me what I thought had been the case. I had tried to kill myself and Larten had saved me. I wish he had not but it proved that he still cared about me or he would have let me fall. **

**Larten came in to the wing alone. He obviously wanted to talk to me and I let him.**

"**What do you want? I have nothing to say to you" I growled.**

"**What the hell do you think you were playing at Sarah? You nearly died. I almost did not get you in time" Larten yelled back, he had fire in his eyes.**

"**Please do not yell. I feel awful but this is entirely your fault. You gave me a reason to live, without you I have no reason to live because I cannot bear to be apart from you. You know that Larten. I have told you often enough" I said back between sobs. **

"**I can see that I have made a huge mistake. I do not know what came over me but it is too late now. I will sort it though do not worry. Can you ever forgive my sheer stupidity Sarah? I have saved you twice now and then I break your heart. I am such a fool sometimes. How can I ever make it up to you Sarah?" Larten asked me as he knelt down at my feet.**

"**I have no idea Larten. Like you said it is too late now. I saw that ginger girl at your side with your marks on her neck and her outfit was much nicer than mine" I said angrily. **

"**I am so sorry. I will deal with Samantha in my own way. I can find her a new mentor and we have not mated properly, I have only done a little bit of foreplay but nothing like what I did to you when we first met" Larten explained.**

"**That is not the point. The point is that you left me and now I am suffering because of it. You swore to look after me and that we would never be apart. You broke that promise and now I can never trust you and saving my life twice does not change anything. I love you with such fierce passion but I clearly mean nothing to you or you would have treated me better" I explained.**

"**Look Sarah, I love you do not get me wrong but I was weak and now I will have to pay for my mistake. I will do whatever you ask of me. I want you back in my arms" Larten pleaded.**

"**Ok, here is the deal, get rid of Samantha and then you will make a public declaration of your love for me and me alone in some way" I demanded.**

"**If that is your wish then I will do as you ask. I will give Samantha to Vancha or Arrow to look after. I will never look at her or speak to her again. I will sort out the other thing as well but it will take some organising" Larten said.**

"**Very well Larten but until then I will not mate with you or forgive you until you prove yourself worthy of my love once more. Oh and one more thing go and wash because I can smell that girl all over you. It makes me feel sick to my stomach" I ordered.**

"**If that is what you wish my love. I will be back when my business is complete" Larten said as he vanished. **

**I slumped back into my bed and I rested. I was still extremely angry and weak from the blood loss. I wondered what Larten was going to do to try and win me back. Whatever it was it would have to be good because I was not in a forgiving mood. Larten had hurt me very badly and it had nearly killed me literally but I knew that he would make it up to me in some way. He had to as otherwise I would never look at him or talk to him ever again**.


	17. The Mateship Blessing

**Chapter 17 the Mateship Blessing**

**A few nights later I was able to leave the medical wing and I was allowed to walk into the halls and join the rest of the clan. I really missed the mountain folk. I had made a lot of friends and they were all pleased to see that I was well again.**

**I had not seen Samantha since I had been on the Bars but I eventually bumped into her and she was terrified of me just as I had been afraid of Arra before we had duelled and then become friends. Samantha was a fourteen year old half vampiress that Larten had taken a fancy to but it went too far and he ended up blooding her. **

**Samantha used to run away from me if she saw me; she was petrified of me and she had reason to be but I was not going to hurt her. I was not that mean. I was a much better vampiress than that. **

**Samantha tried to duel me on the Bars but I knocked her off with ease. She kept getting up and every time she got on the Bars I knocked her off again and then she gave up and got bored. Samantha went looking for Larten and she found him because he came into the Halls of Sport to see me but when Samantha tried to talk to him he ignored her. He jumped up onto the Bars with me and he gave me a sparring match and then a proper duel which was fun. Larten tried to knock me off but I sent him sailing to the ground with a little combo that Arra had taught me. **

**Larten jumped back up onto the Bars and he congratulated me then he came in to kiss me and as Samantha was there I let him kiss me and he lifted me up into the air and soon I was being spun around in the air like the old days. Samantha watched in awe because she had not seen any of Larten's tricks that he liked to do to me. I could see that she was upset but I did not care. **

**I left the Halls of Sport with Larten behind me like some kind of red shadow. Samantha followed us but Larten told her to stay away from us both as she was no longer his concern and he did not care about her any more.**

**Larten got Vanez Blaine to take care of her as he was in need of a new assistant to help him keep the Halls of Sport clean and the equipment needed to be maintained like I used to have to do when I had duties to perform.**

**One evening I was summoned to the Hall of Meetings. Even though the council had ended many months before they had decided to hold a special gathering. The entire clan turned out to hear the announcement that Larten had. I was quite embarrassed but I had asked him to do this so now it was time for me to find out how Larten had planned to win me back. **

"**Vampires of the clan we have gathered together in the Hall of Meetings because Larten has an announcement which the whole clan must hear, Sarah would you come up here please?" The chief councillor asked. I slowly walked forward from my seat and stepped onto the elevated platform not knowing what to expect. **

"**Larten over to you and please keep it short because we all want to start preparing for this event" The chief councillor said.**

"**Prepare for what?" I asked interested. Then Larten knelt down on his knees before he spoke and he said;**

"**Sarah I have brought the whole clan here to tell them how much I love you. I have to ask you a question that I hope the answer will be yes to because it has taken a lot of preparation to get this far. I am shaking as you can see and normally I never shake do I? I am feeling nervous and it has been a long time since I felt this nervous. Sarah I have gathered everybody here to ask you in front of them if you would do me the very great honour of becoming my blessed mate" **

"**Is this like a proposal of marriage but vampire style?" I asked.**

"**Yes you could say that. Do you accept my proposal as it were?" Larten asked me.**

"**Alright I accept your proposal. Yes I will marry you or become your blessed mate" I said. **

**At this point Larten arose and he pulled out of one of his many pockets a box that obviously contained a ring. It was the biggest stone that I had ever seen but it was not a diamond it was a ruby with purple stones surrounding it set into what must have been platinum to match my bracelet which I still had on my wrist.**

"**So uh what happens now? I cannot believe how big this stone is" I said as I left the platform.**

"**Well now we must prepare for our blessing or wedding as it were. It involves us repeating vows and then a huge feast, then a ceremonial hunt and then a round of games in the Halls of Sport before we then leave the mountain on what you might know as a honeymoon but vampires call it a "Mateship night"" Larten explained.**

"**Sounds like fun to me. Does this mean that I will be Mrs Sarah Crepsley?" I asked.**

"**No you will become known as Madam Crepsley or Sarah to your friends" Larten explained.**

"**Ok, I had better start preparing then. There is so much to do. When is this taking place?" I asked.**

"**As soon as everything is ready we will hold the ceremony. There is so much to do. We have to organise the decorations, the food, the drinks, the hunting party, the flowers, the dresses, the suits, the vows which we will take and then there is the Mateship night, the clothing for that night, the venue for that night and the list goes on and it is not cheap either" Larten explained.**

"**Well I had better get started then. I will start writing invitations tonight" I said and I flit upstairs to grab my writing set. **

**I was so excited. I could not contain it because my life was finally going right. I had always hoped that secretly something like this would take place but I had fought to get there and now I felt like I had finally won and that everything would be ok now that I had Larten back again. We had separated for nineteen months and that is a long time for anyone to be away from their partner. I was not even sure if we would get back together but we did so I was very lucky. **

**Larten could not really afford a big affair so we called in a few favours and managed to borrow enough money to have a decent ceremony. I would have to pay them back later when I was back at the Cirque Du Freak working. **

**My dress was stunning. It was a huge thing that was like a proper wedding dress except it was deep red with purple and gold crystals on it. It was like a corset with a huge flowing skirt that dropped to the floor. It had several layers of net under it to make it all puffy.**

**Larten's suit was the same colour but it was so fine. It was made from this sort of velvet material with the traditional high collared cape that went with it.**

**I had real jewels that matched and a genuine train and a veil too. I looked like a royal bride with a dark secret. **

**My corset was laced up so tight it was hard to breathe in it but I had to follow tradition and besides it would probably be ripped off of my body anyway so it did not matter how tight it was. **

**The flowers were roses and all kinds of mountain flowers from the hedgerows. I had a huge bouquet and my mateship party had the same but smaller. I was put in charge of the feast. I had to choose what to have and since I could cook I had to make most of it with a bit of help. We had a hog roast and a lot of alcohol, plenty of soups and stews, bread and bowls of berries and nuts. There was enough for the whole clan and we set it up in the main hall on a new table that had been made for the occasion. I got Vanez to help Seba with the decorations. We hung up our banners and we had a banner that had "Congratulations on your blessed mateship" written on it. We hung it up over the table so that when the clan entered the hall they would see it. **

**Larten organised his hunting party. The tradition was that Larten would take his group into the woods and they would bring down a stag for the Princes as a gift to say thank you for performing the ceremony; then everybody would drink from it to symbolise our clan's unity before it was roasted and served as the feast centrepiece. **

**Finally everything was ready for our mateship blessing to take place. I was very nervous. The ceremony would be in the Princes Dome and then we would all move into the main hall before the hunting party would leave. In the meantime I would be feasting and joining others in the Halls of Sport for the entertainment whilst I waited for the hunting party to return.**

**I had not seen Larten for three weeks as was tradition. We had spoken but we had not been permitted to actually see each other because it was bad luck apparently just as humans believed. **

**I cautiously walked into the Princes Dome. The whole clan were in there sitting on the long benches. I had to stand in front of the Princes facing the clan when I took my vows just like in a normal wedding. I was standing in front of the Princes. I was shaking like a leaf in the breeze with pure nerves. **

"**Vampires of the clan we have gathered together tonight in the sight of the vampire gods to join this vampire and this vampiress in a blessed mateship which is an honourable state to enter into. I must ask that if anybody knows a reason why these two vampires may not be joined in a blessed mateship please let them voice their concerns or for ever hold their tongues" Prince Vancha proclaimed. The whole clan was silent to my relief. I was afraid that Samantha would speak up and voice her concerns because of what had happened but she knew better than that. I had let her come but she had no part in the ceremony; she was there to watch in silence and then she was going to serve drinks for people but that was it.**

"**I must ask both of you standing before us if either of you know a reason why you cannot enter into this blessed mateship" Prince Vancha continued.**

"**I know of no reason Sire" I said as was tradition.**

"**I can think of no reason why I cannot enter into this blessed mateship either" Larten replied.**

"**Ok then that is good, Larten do you give yourself to Sarah? Do you vow to be by her side? Do you swear with the vampire gods as your witnesses that you will always be a faithful mate? If you do so swear say so" Vancha said.**

"**I swear so by all that is vampiric" Larten said.**

"**Sarah same question, do you give yourself to Larten? Do you vow to be by his side? Do you swear with the vampire gods as your witnesses that you will always be a faithful mate? If you do so swear say so" Vancha asked me.**

"**I swear it to be so" I replied.**

"**Larten repeat after me. I Larten Crepsley do accept you Sarah Jane Louise Wintle to be my mate, to stand by you and to guard you. I swear to love you and to you I give my body and my soul" Vancha said.**

"**I Larten Crepsley do accept you Sarah Jane Louise Wintle to be my mate, to stand by you and to guard you. I swear to love you and to you I give my body and soul" Larten repeated.**

"**Sarah repeat after me. I Sarah Jane Louise Wintle do accept you Larten Crepsley as my mate; I swear to always support you and stand up for you. I promise to love you and to you I give my body and my soul" Vancha continued.**

"**I Sarah Jane Louise Wintle do accept you Larten as my mate; I swear to always support you and stand up for you. I promise to love you and to you I give my body and soul" I repeated solemnly.**

"**Larten do you have the ring?" Vancha asked.**

"**I do" Larten replied. **

"**Then place it on Sarah's finger and say to her I give you this ring as a symbol of our bond and may the gods bless it and bless us and our mateship." Vancha instructed.**

"**I give you this ring as a symbol of our bond and may the gods bless it and bless our mateship" Larten repeated.**

**I said the same as I placed his ring on his finger. Then we faced each other for the final part of the ceremony.**

"**Larten and Sarah you have taken these vows in front of the gods and in front of the clan. I Vancha March bless you and your mateship" Vancha said.**

"**I Paris Skyle bless you and your mateship; may the gods look favourably upon you" Paris Said.**

"**I Mika Ver Leth bless you and your mateship; may you always remain together and may you always be happy and prosperous" Mika Ver Leth said. **

"**I Darren Shan do bless you and your mateship. May you and Sarah always be a good influence on our clan" Darren said.**

**Prince Arrow was away from the mountain as one Prince always had to be away from the council for security reasons. **

"**Larten and Sarah you have taken your vows and exchanged rings. You are now formally blessed mates and you may now kiss your mate Larten" Vancha said and then he continued;**

"**May I present to you all Mr and Madam Crepsley"**

**As tradition stated we kissed I was in high heels but I was still shorter than Larten so he scooped me up and he held me up level to him. I never did anything in public so I was quite embarrassed but it was so worth it. We had not seen each other for weeks and it had been so long since we had kissed each other; the last time had been when we were on the Bars after our last duel. **

**Afterwards we exited the Princes Dome and headed into the hall where the food was. Larten had to leave for the ceremonial hunt so he and his hunting party left after a few glasses of ale and I made my way around the guests and I spoke to lots of clan members. **

**I stuffed myself with food and wine then I hopped up onto the Bars and waited for the ceremonial games to begin. It was our form of entertainment until the band played; I had managed to find a group of vampires who played instruments so I put them together and they practiced hard. They played all kinds of music from around the world and it was good. You could dance to it but I was happy on the Bars knocking off everybody who challenged me. I had such fun. **

**Soon enough the hunting party returned with the biggest stag that I had ever seen. It had eleven points on its antlers and it was massive. As it was my mateship I had to feed first with Larten and then the stag's carcass was placed on the table in front of the princes. The Princes carried it to the open fire and roasted it then they cut it up into sections. They ate their fill and then we got the rest of it as we were still hungry. **

**Then Larten and I had to dance. I picked a modern song that Larten did not know. We danced to the song "Scandalous" by Mis-Teeq. The band played a slightly different version of it but it was still great. I still had my dress on, I had not changed into another outfit and the best thing was that I could dance in it. It moved with me and I looked really cool. I was not a great dancer but I was good enough to perform basic steps. I enjoyed dancing but soon it was time for the speeches. **

**We all sat down and now came the embarrassing bit. The selected hunt party had to stand up and give speeches. They had to tell stories about Larten's escapades and his life before he met me. Larten went as red as his cape when Seba stood up and told us a tale of a drunken night of strip poker that ended up as truth or dare. Larten ended up drunk in Gavnur's coffin and he was dared to stay there until the sun had set. It was very funny but not as funny as the tale that Vanez told the clan about me. **

**I could not speak for choking with laughter as it was a story about how I had gone to the loo in nothing but Larten's cloak wrapped around me. I had flit down to the W.C and Gavnur had followed thinking that I was Larten so when he tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around wearing nothing at all he erupted with laughter and Gavnur went red as he was staring at my naked body that had been marked and scarred by Larten. **

**Then Larten entered the W.C and all hell broke loose but all was soon forgiven and from that night on I was always dressed when I went anywhere even if I had previously been in bed. **

**After the speeches we left the mountain as was tradition. Larten had to flit me somewhere and there we would spend our first day as blessed mates. I assumed that Larten had built some kind of shelter for us both to spend the day in but in fact he took me to one of his secret hideaways that had been built years before. **

**I was not allowed to know or see where we were going but I knew what was coming up so I tried to think about that. We entered the secret hideaway. It was like a cottage but it was quite small and it only had a bed and a wardrobe in it. No other furniture was in there as it was not required. This was basically a one roomed house that was meant only for mating. I did not know how long we would be there for but a week or two was usual for newly blessed couples. **

**I liked the room. It had been decorated but I could see that it had not been lived in for some time if at all. I opened the wardrobe and there was a whole load of stuff that was not ours. There was clothing and weapons and what looked like a jewellery box.**

"**Larten what is all this stuff in here? It is not mine" I said.**

"**Oh I completely forgot to empty it out. Most of it was Arra's and the rest belongs to Samantha. I should return Samantha's items to her when I can. Arra said in her letter that you could have her weapons and her clothing but it would not fit you. It is too big for your tiny frame. I was supposed to dispose of it but I decided to keep it because I have nothing of Arra's to remind me of her apart from these meagre items and the necklace that she gave me when we got together" Larten said. **

"**Is that the one that you always wear?" I asked.**

"**Yes. I vowed that I would never take it off and I never have" Larten said.**

"**That is fair enough. I do not mind but I would rather not be reminded of your ex mate on my mateship night" I said.**

"**What do you wish me to do?" Larten asked.**

"**Well get rid of all these things. Put them in your vault or something but I do not want them around me whilst we are celebrating our mateship" I said.**

"**If that is what you wish. I will flit the stuff to my vault and then I will return to do what we came here to do. The necklace will always stay around my neck. It is close to my heart and I believe that is bad form to break a promise to the dead in case they are watching us" Larten said as he picked up the possessions and he vanished. **

**Meanwhile back at the mountain the party was in full swing. The band was playing and everybody was getting hammered. Larten quickly went to his vault and he put the stuff in there. He returned Samantha's possessions to her and of course everybody was surprised to see Larten back in the halls. **

"**That was quick Larten" Gavnur joked.**

"**Do not be so stupid. We have not mated yet. I had to clear out the wardrobe in the room. I was full of my ex's stuff and I totally forgot because I have not been there for so long. I have returned Samantha's things to her but Arra's stuff is in my vault. It is all I have to remind me of her" Larten explained to Gavnur.**

"**I understand. Anyway I will not hold you up any longer. You have a job to do Larten. It's your mateship night after all" Gavnur said.**

"**It is indeed my mateship night so I had better give my best performance yet. I want to make it unforgettable. I admit that it has not gotten off to a good start with all of my ex's stuff in that wardrobe. I do not know why I am discussing this with you though Gavnur. I am sure that there is a barrel of ale with your name on it somewhere" Larten replied.**

"**Aye, that there is. More than one barrel has my name on it. Tell me all about it afterwards though and spare no details. I miss our conversations" Gavnur said. **

"**I will tell you nothing Gavnur. It is not your concern. I am not the vampire I once was. I have changed but now I must go. See you in a fortnight or so" Larten said as he flitted back to the one roomed cottage where I was waiting for him. **

**I was so nervous. I was excited too and I was quite tipsy but I was ready for this. I had been looking forward to it for a long time.**

**Larten entered the cottage and he wasted no time. He was as up for it as what I was and he had fire in his eyes. I could see that his inner animal was going to be released and that meant that this was going to be good.**

"**Are you ready for this? I am about to give you my best performance yet. I hope that you can take it. I warn you that I am going to do things to you like you have never experienced. You will be screaming out my name before long" Larten said.**

"**I am as ready as I will ever be. Bring it on then Larten my new blessed mate" I replied as I stood up and then Larten literally ripped my dress off of me. I had my underwear on but that got ripped off of me also. Larten was so strong that it was easy for him to rip the fabric off of me. I stood there naked in front of him. He had already ripped off his own clothing and he pounced on me with such ferocity and intent that I could do nothing. **

**We mated with such passion. We let our inner animals take over. I ended up being bitten and scratched to ribbons and that was before Larten entered me. He was on top and he completely took over. We rolled over again and again and then I rocked on top with speed and it was so good. Then Larten pounded into me deeply. I could do nothing I just stayed there and endured it until I felt pleasure taking over my body. I was enjoying it so much. This was a really good session. It was like the first time that we had met when we were at it for hours but this was different because now we were using chains. I was chained to the bed and I was at Larten's mercy.**

"**You have me where you want me. Take me now and show me no mercy. I want you so badly" I gasped.**

"**Have patience my love. I will not give it to you all at once or it will not last as long but if you want me to take you then I will" Larten said.**

**I could do nothing except let him have his way with me. Then it was my turn to chain Larten up so I did and I took total control. I would not let him come straight away; I teased him for ages before I let him release his fluids into my body. I rocked on top of him until I was too tired to continue. Then I unchained him and we slowed down but we did not stop because Larten still had loads left to give. I laid there and he took me to a new level of pleasure; I had never felt like this before it was just too much. My whole body was writhing with the waves of orgasm that was pulsing through me; I could not control myself because the animal inside me had taken over and although I was myself I was not acting like it. I had red eyes and I wanted it harder and faster. I had the same fire my eyes that Larten had in his eyes.**

"**Larten!" I screamed his name out loud for that was all I could do; Larten had made me come so hard that screaming out his name and begging him not to stop what he was doing to me was inevitable. **

**I was covered in bites and bloody, deep scratch marks and gashes at the end of our mateship night. Larten had bites and scratches on him also; I had dug my nails deep into his back and brought them around onto his front. We had so much adrenaline in our bodies that the pain did not stop us and we licked the free flowing blood off of each other to close the wounds that we had inflicted during our mateship.**

"**Wow. That was so amazingly powerful. I love you so much. I forgive you for your past mistake with Samantha. I was not expecting that; my clothes are ripped to shreds and this bed is covered in blood" I said as I relaxed because I was so tired. **

"**I expected as much. We can still sleep in this bed if we change the bedding but we will have to be careful of the broken slats" Larten replied as he lay down beside me.**

**The bed had been broken because we had been so rough with each other; some of the wooden slats had snapped and one of the posts had come down but we could still sleep on it after we changed the bed linen. We curled up like a pair of animals; we were wrapped around each other and we kissed until I turned over and yawned. I was so tired but I was very satisfied and I have to say that was the best sex that I had ever had up until this point. **

**I slept well because I was so tired. When the sun had set neither of us rose as we were still recovering from the day before. I eventually got up and fixed breakfast though. We needed all of the strength that we could get. I was very sore from the day before. I was very happy though and every time I did something I saw my rings dazzling in the light. I felt so lucky and honoured. **

**We stayed in the cottage for two weeks and then we returned to the mountain. I was glad to be back but I had to put up with the clan asking me questions. **

**I was having a wash when a couple of other vampiresses came in to wash also. They could see the scars on my body and I had a fair few. I did not like them because I was self-conscious but the bear attack could not have been avoided and I had enjoyed my mateship night so much that I did not mind that Larten had scarred me. **

**I had such a good time in the mountain. I moved back into Larten's quarters and I felt at home. I missed our hay loft and I missed our manor house but I loved the mountain. It looked great now that it had been decorated.**


	18. Vampire Ville

**Chapter 18 Vampire Ville**

**Larten and I stayed in the mountain for a few more months before one evening Larten decided to take me away on holiday. We were going to a vampire friendly place but I had no idea where it was or how we were going to get there. **

**Larten had sprung the surprise on me one day after we had gone to bed. We were in bed talking when Larten had said;**

"**Sarah I think that it is about time that I took you on that holiday I promised you. I have booked two first class tickets to Vampire Ville. It is like a resort for vampires where they can relax and have a good time. It is quite expensive but I never break a promise as you know. We can go whenever you are ready" **

"**Oh Larten it sounds amazing. I would love to go there. I will go with you as soon as it is possible. I need a holiday" I replied.**

"**I thought that you could do with something to look forward to. We will leave the night after tomorrow. We need to pack and find people to fill in for us as we will not be here to do our duties" Larten responded.**

"**Very well thank you so much for spoiling me like this. I really have no idea how to make it up to you. I can never repay you for this" I explained.**

"**There is no need to repay me. I am trying to be the best mate that I can be and that means spoiling you and taking on holiday" Larten told me. **

"**Thank you again. I will forever owe you for this. I love being your mate as much as I love you" I said as I looked at my rings.**

"**You are my blessed mate. There is a difference. I love you and this is my way of showing you what you mean to me" Larten replied. **

"**I got my ring engraved by the way. It has your name in it now" I said.**

"**It is like your bracelet then. I had my ring engraved with our initials and a heart between them" Larten explained.**

"**That is so sweet. I feel so lucky that I have you as my blessed mate. In the dark times when we separated I begged and prayed that one night you would return to me and reinstate our mateship" I explained.**

"**Are you telling me that you wanted me back that badly? I cannot believe how stupid I was to do what I did. I did not realise just how much I meant to you if I had you praying and begging the vampire gods for me to return to you" Larten said.**

"**Well I did say that I loved you and I meant it. I have always loved you. Anyway I am tired. Good day my blessed mate" I said.**

"**Sleep well my love" Larten replied as we curled up and slept the day away. **

**I spent the next evening packing my bags ready to leave for my holiday. I was really looking forward to it. I was not sure which country we were going to but I knew that part of the journey would be made by a sled that was pulled by huskies. I assumed that we were going somewhere cold or somewhere that had snow. **

**I was relying on Larten to lead the way. We were going by bus and then by husky sled. We had to get to the bus stop which was a long way from the mountain. We flitted at full speed and we reached it six hours later. That will tell you how far away it was. **

**The bus was late but it was a luxury bus and it had been specially made with sun proof windows and proper tables that we could eat on and play cards on. **

"**Welcome aboard the Vampire Ville Express. Can I have your names and your tickets please?" The driver asked us.**

"**Yes, the name is Mr and Madam Crepsley. We have two first class seats" Larten said.**

"**Right this way. I see that you two are blessed mates. You are the first couple in over five hundred years to become blessed mates. You must be very proud" The driver said.**

"**Yes. I am honoured. Proud does not cover it" I said.**

**Larten and I took up our seats on the bus. They were very comfortable. We were on the bus with several other couples that also wanted a holiday. I still had no idea about where Vampire Ville was but I was happy about the mystery. **

**Larten and I played cards and we took advantage of the first class freebies. We had free champagne and as we had recently became blessed mates we got an upgrade so we were treated like movie stars. Nothing was too much trouble and it was at no extra cost either. I felt so honoured by all of this attention. Larten and I had our own compartment at the back of the bus which was nice; it even had curtains that pulled across so that if we were tired or if we wanted privacy we got it. It meant that we could play strip poker if we chose to or if we wanted to do other stuff then we could. **

**When we finally arrived at Vampire Ville I was shattered and I wanted to straight to our room. It was luxury; it was like the room in the City Grand Hotel but it was a lot bigger and it was designed with vampires in mind as it had free blood and there were weapons attached to the walls that we could try out if we wished to. There was also a huge coffin that was big enough for two instead of a bed but it looked cosy enough. I had not slept in a coffin before.**

**Larten missed his coffin but I was not too keen on the idea of sleeping in one so he had got a bed instead and adapted it for us when we had arrived at the mountain. It had posts attached to it and it had extra slats in case some got broken. It had chains attached to the bed stead also but that was not my idea; Larten liked bondage. I used the chains on Larten because after the first time that Larten had chained me up on our mateship night I decided that it was not for me so I let him do other stuff instead of chaining me up like a sex slave. **

**I was quite happy with our room in Vampire Ville. I was even ok with sleeping in a coffin but it was the facilities that I wanted to check out. This was a proper resort so we had a pool and tennis courts, an arena and plenty of opportunity to go riding and enjoy other vampire pursuits. We even had a special night club that was called the Sundown Club. It was special because it was run by humans who had clan connections. I knew that I going to have such a great time at Vampire Ville.**

**I finally found out that we were in Sweden. We had travelled for miles. The husky sled ride had been really fun. We had a sled with two seats and twelve huskies that pulled us and our luggage. I had packed loads of clothes and weapons. I was not sure if I would need them but it was always good to be prepared as Larten had taught me. **

**I did not get much sleep because Larten kept me up all day and at night time we were always out and about making the most of our first class upgraded passes. I loved the spa and the sauna. It did my muscles the world of good and they offered special scar reduction treatments. I had them done on my back and on my front because I was badly scarred. I had to wear a high collar all of the time because Larten had a thing about love bites. I was always covered up so that the bites could not be seen. I found it embarrassing to have them but when I saw the other vampiresses showing theirs off it did not seem so bad so I let some of them show if they were not too big. **

**I also made full use of the gym and the pool. I almost felt human again but one look in the mirror reminded me of whom I really was. I was always looking at my rings; they served as a permanent reminder of what I had achieved in my life and who I slept next to every day and woke up with every night. **

**Things were ok. In fact they were better than ok but I started asking around and I found out lots of things that I did not wish to know. These things were about Larten and about the last time he had come to Vampire Ville. He had brought his assistant and his then mate with him when he first arrived. **

**The mate that Larten had brought here was Arra obviously but what upset me was that I was sleeping where she had slept and Larten was treating me the same as her. I know how much he loved her but she was always there like he could not move on or something. It was weird. What annoyed me the most was that he had nightmares or dreams about her and their time together and one day he even called me Arra when we were mating which was the last straw. I then realised that he was trying to replace her with me and he wanted me to be like her but I was not Arra and I never would be.**

**I was Sarah my own person with my own dreams and goals in life; just because I loved the Bars and I looked similar to Arra it did not mean that Larten had to turn me into her almost. **

**It annoyed me so much that we got into a fight about it and it was not pleasant. We had little spats before but not like this; this was serious. **

"**I am so pissed off at you Larten. I cannot believe that you would try and turn me into your ex; worse still your deceased ex. I will never be Arra and I do not want to be her either!" I bellowed.**

"**Well it is hard letting go of the mate that I loved for so long. I still love her now and that will never cease but it is different between you and I. Had I not met you I had planned to ask Arra to be with me again." Larten shouted back.**

"**So you do not love me? You say that you do but you cannot love me as much as what you love her. The fact that you called out her name in bed and not mine was the last straw. That is just not done. I have only ever been with you but supposing I called out Steve Leopard's name or something. You would not like it either." I explained.**

"**No I would not like it one bit. I made a mistake because I was drunk and I was fantasising about her. It makes me have more fun if I do." Larten said.**

"**That is even worse. That is like saying that I do not satisfy you and the only way that I can get you off is if you picture me as your ex. That is so hurtful." I yelled back.**

"**Well it is the truth. I have never told anybody before but nothing can satisfy me unless I am picturing Arra doing what you do when you do it." Larten explained.**

"**Well if that is the case then I had better not mate with you anymore. I do not want you to imagine your ex when we are together. You should see me and be happy with me. I wear your rings not Arra. I supported you when no one else did. I even took you back after the Samantha incident. I realise now that maybe I should not have taken you back so readily." I cried out.**

"**Well if I had of met you then Arra would still be here and you would be living a regular human existence and you have been a vet or whatever it was that you were hoping to become." Larten said.**

"**Do you blame me for Arra's death? I avenged her remember? I avenged her in your name out of love for you." I said.**

"**I know you did and no I do not blame you but I just wish that she was here even if you are here. I wish that Arra was still alive because I miss her so much." Larten admitted.**

"**I know that you miss her but remember what she said in her last letter? She instructed you not to be sad and she also told you to look after me and be a good mate to me. If she is looking down on you now how do you think that she would feel?" I asked.**

"**Arra would be disappointed that I have not kept my promise to her which was to take care of you and be the loving, faithful mate that I should be. I vowed to be those things to you when I took my mateship vows and I have not upheld them. I feel so ashamed." Larten said calmly.**

"**Do not be ashamed it is natural to grieve and it can take years to get over something like that. I was the same when I left my parents for you. Remember how I was in the beginning? I got through it though and I got through it because you were there for me so now let me be there for you. Open up and let me help you." I said.**

"**I will try to but it is hard. I feel like Arra is haunting my memory. It is like she is always there and she will never leave me but at the same time it is stopping me from moving on with my life. I have to let her go but not forget her." Larten said.**

"**Yes that is a good way of describing it. Darryl moved on and he found Raven and you have me; if Darryl can move on so can you although I understand how hard it is for you. You knew Arra way longer than most vampires and I know why she is so special to you. Arra told me what she did for you." I explained.**

"**So you know my secret?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes, I know everything." I replied.**

"**Oh. Well in that case I can see why you understand now. It all makes sense to me." Larten said.**

**Larten had never told anyone but he had a bad experience and Arra had effectively saved his life. She had managed to stop the people from doing what they were about to do. Arra risked her own life to save Larten and then they had fallen in love afterwards. They vowed to be at each other's side until death separated them and that is why Larten was having a hard time letting go of Arra. **

**I tried to help him but I was no bereavement councillor. I had no idea what to do but we tried to enjoy the rest of our holiday even after we had argued and fought like bat and moth. I felt awful but there was nothing that I could do. I just tried to put it to the back of my mind. We continued our mateship but it was a rough time for both of us. Larten was missing Arra like crazy and I was missing him because although we were together physically mentally Larten was not with me because he was stuck in the past. **

"**Sarah. Do you know what tonight is?" Larten asked me.**

"**No, I think it is Tuesday but it is not a night of celebration is it?" I asked.**

"**Tonight is the anniversary of the night when Arra and I got together. We got together sixty years ago tonight." Larten told me.**

"**Oh. I did not know that. So on this night Arra and you got together sixty years ago. You were together ten years then you split and you left the mountain and returned fifty years later with me. Is that correct?" I asked.**

"**That about sums it up. I normally get drunk and relive that night but this year I should do something different I think. The night in question means nothing to you but to me it marked a major turning point in my life." Larten explained.**

"**If you want to celebrate it you can. I would not know how to celebrate it but if you want me to help you I will do." I said.**

"**Seriously you want to be a part of this?" Larten asked me.**

"**Well I vowed to be at your side and to support you so that is what I intend to do." I replied. **

"**Very well then you may help me celebrate this night; normally I put on the clothes that I was wearing on that night. I do not have them though as they got left behind in the mountain. I will have to wear my second set of clothes and the cape that I wore on that night is the only thing I have to wear. Next I visit the places where we went; drinking along the way and then finally I would go and find Arra and then we would reminisce about that night and then we would spend the day together but not in that way if you see my meaning. However because Arra is dead I cannot do the last part so instead I will drink a toast to her and then I will ask the vampire gods to watch over us and I will ask them to allow Arra to come to me in a dream or something like that instead." Larten explained.**

"**Very well then if that is what you want to do tonight. I guess that we will be getting hammered and then we will wake up with headaches." I replied as I changed my clothes. **

"**If you do not wish to get drunk then we do not have to get drunk. I just want to look back and remember the vampiress who saved my life then saved me from myself. I was nightmare when I was younger. I listened to nobody and Seba had no control over me but Arra kept me in check and she helped me become the vampire I am tonight." Larten said.**

"**Ok I understand. Arra was like a second mentor to you as well as your mate. I guess she provided a fair bit of entertainment for you and a decent sparring partner. I bet she taught you how to fight or taught you how to duel." I replied.**

"**Arra taught me everything that Seba did not. When I arrived I was pompous, proud and arrogant and Arra had not been interested in me at all. It took me months of training to get her to notice me then one night I jumped onto the Bars and I beat her. We made a deal before the duel that if I beat her she would have to kiss me and she did as well. I was hooked from that moment and I spent the rest of my time trying to lure her into my quarters but she never came to me. I went to her instead. Arra knew how to play hard to get but eventually she let me inside because she was bored. I have never forgotten that night. Arra's power over me was supreme; she made me want her and when we were not together she was always on my mind. I would skip duties and sneak into the Halls of Sport to see her and then we would duel before making our exit out of the mountain and into the woods or somewhere where nobody would find us until we had finished our session. One time we did not return for a fortnight and a search party was sent out for us. We were hidden in the trees and we heard them calling us but we let them go on searching for us while we made the most of our time together. We came back to the mountain and faced the music but it was worth it just to see the look on Seba and Arrow's face when we returned unharmed and totally oblivious to the trouble that we had caused." Larten told me.**

"**I see. You must have been in deep trouble. Making your mentors send out a search party and go through all that trouble just so you two could be together. I am glad that we did not have to sneak around like that." I said.**

"**Well we had extra duties and we were not allowed to see each other after that but we sent secret messages to each other and then when the council held a meeting they got to the any other business section and we stood up together and we made our mateship official and no one knew until that point. Seba and Arrow could not stop us so they accepted it. We stayed together for the next ten years and then we split up because I wanted to go to the Cirque Du Freak and Arra did not want to so I left her. It hurt me but I had to do it because I was bored of the mountain. I was going to be made a Prince but I changed my mind at the last minute, joined the Cirque Du Freak and I did not step foot in the mountain again until I took you there." Larten reminisced.**

"**Oh right I understand now. We had better start celebrating this significant night then had we not?" I said. **

"**Yes. As we are in Vampire Ville we can go and party in Arra's name and have a blast. Arra would not want us to be sad as she was such a live wire. No one could order her because she did what she wanted when she wanted and she had little respect for anybody except me and her mentor. She was raised by Lady Evanna as one of her servants so she had a tough life before Arrow blooded her and brought her to the mountain. I fell for her charms as she really was stunning but I never would have won her if not for the deal we made before we duelled. Arra hated me for beating her but she loved how I put the effort in and I left her head spinning after we kissed. I made her crave me as much as I craved her." **

"**I see. I am ready to party if you are. We need to celebrate Arra's life and give thanks for it for she meant so much to you." I said.**

"**Yes let's go and hit the clubs. I am ready now that I have my old cape on. It is still stained with Arra's blood. "Larten said.**

"**Why did you not wash it Larten?" I asked.**

"**Because the blood was what Arra spilled when I took her innocence from her. Arra made a gift of her innocence to me." Larten explained as we left.**

"**Ah I get it. Arra saved your life; then she gave you her virginity and that is why you shared such a deep connection. I understand why you loved her so much." I said.**

"**Anyway my past is not really something which I wish to discuss. What we did and what we did not do is personal but as you can imagine it was pretty meaningful because Arrow had planned to break Arra himself when he deemed her ready but she came to me and she put her trust into my skilled hands but at the time I was not as good as what I am now. Arra made me good because she had a natural talent." Larten said as we entered the club and began to dance. **

"**How many women have you been with? How many girls have you broken in?" I asked intrigued.**

"**I have slept with countless women. I have no idea but I have only had three serious relationships; you, Arra and the other girl that I was engaged to in France. I have taken the innocence of many ladies. Most of them were humans when I was human but I have taken innocence from vampiresses also. Most of the vampiresses in the clan had a brief thing with me before Arra changed that. I was a player and as men go I was a nightmare. I hardly ever slept in my own quarters; I was called a quarter caller which means that I would always have women in there with me; sometimes more than one at the same time but I am not like that now because Arra said that she wanted me to commit to her. If I really wanted her which I did she wanted me to prove it so she told me to save myself for her until she was ready to accept me as her mate." Larten told me as we were dancing to a Britney Spears tune. **

"**So she stopped you from being effectively a male slut." I responded.**

"**Yes; I waited six months for her. I did not even look at another girl in that time. I did as she asked and she could tell because I put the effort into making her time with me worthwhile. I was gagging for it where I had not had it for so long; when we did eventually mate it felt so much better and it forged a bond between us that was unbroken for ten years." Larten answered. **

"**Ok. I did not need that much detail but thanks for your honesty." I replied.**

"**Think nothing of it my love. Let's get some drinks then move on to another venue for the night is young." Larten suggested.**

"**Alright then I will have my usual please with no ice and extra coke." I said (my usual drink was vodka and coke). **

"**Ok. I will have my usual as well." Larten said.**

**Larten's usual drink was rum with a dash of coke and lots of ice. It tended to get him wasted pretty quickly even by vampire standards. Our aim was not to get drunk tonight but to celebrate Arra and her good influence on Larten when he needed it. **

"**Let's have a toast. To Arra may she rest in Paradise in peace." I said.**

"**To Arra I love you and I always will. I miss you like crazy my dark angel. Cheers." Larten added as we drunk our drinks in one gulp. **

**We moved onto another club and after that we went down to the river and we hired a boat with oars. We watched the sunrise and then we retired to bed. We had tried to celebrate Arra's life but it was hard; Larten was getting upset because he missed her so much and I hardly knew her but I did my best to remember her as a good friend and a vampiress who had good standing. **

**We went to bed that day and I was so tired. I had been up for hours and the alcohol had made me really tired also. Larten was upset but he had other things on his mind. **

"**Are you up to mating? I am but I will not bother you if you think that it is wrong." I asked.**

"**Yes alright I do not think that it would be a problem but I want to do to you what I did to Arra when we got together for the first time. Call it role play if you like." Larten explained. **

"**Ok. I do not mind as long as it is good. I miss this part of our relationship." I said.**

"**It will be great. I will make it worthwhile." Larten said as he began to kiss me. He did it slowly at first and then he got deeper and I could feel him working his magic on me. Pretty soon I was on top taking full control of him but he had his way with me and soon he was in control making me hold onto him tighter whilst he pounded the hell out of me which made me really satisfied. Sure enough I was soon pretty vocal and I had such a good time. I always wanted more; even after we had finished mating I still wanted more of him and his love. **

**I was never afraid to ask for more if I wanted it because I needed to satisfy my high libido. The orgasms that I got were always good but sometimes when Larten was on top form they were mind blowing. It felt like a huge wave of this intense sensation was going through me and it just kept on coming making me tingle all over like a bad static charge until I let myself go and then the huge release hit me and I remembered why I loved Larten so much. **

**Sometimes I would want Larten to mate with me so badly that I was practically begging him to release me and feed my carnal hunger. It would not be so bad but vampires tend to be very highly strung and they need to mate. It is a necessity for them because of the inner animal that makes them different from humans. **

**The animal inside makes male vampires strong and they always need to be satisfied sexually; the animal inside the vampiress needs to be fed on blood because females tend to need more blood than males but they are also very alluring and they have the power to make guys do what they want. It is a cross between hypnotism and a siren like quality that makes vampiresses hard to resist and no one can resist the alluring voice of a vampiress be they human or otherwise when she is looking for a mate. **

**I kept Larten coming back for more. Larten always wanted me and even if we had an argument one look into his eyes made me want him to touch me in the way that only he could. It was the same if Larten looked into my eyes I could get him hot with one look that said "take me". I had such a bond with Larten that we did not even need to speak sometimes because one look or one gesture told me everything that I needed to know. **

**I woke up with Larten facing me and he was holding me close like he always did; my head rested next to his and we did look like one entity as we just went together. Sometimes I would wake up and Larten would be practically on top of me. It scared me the first time but after that I got used to him watching me sleep and if he was above me I would sit up, then we would kiss and then roll around a bit or maybe have a bit of foreplay before we got up and went hunting or started our duties in the mountain.**

**Because we were on holiday it meant that we could laze around and stay in bed if we wanted to. Nobody ever disturbed us and we had so much fun; some nights we would not leave the room we would whack the DVD player on and watch movies all day and all night.**

**I could stay up all night and all day if I wanted to but I had to keep my strength up to make sure that I could keep up with Larten because he wanted to mate frequently and that meant that I had to be physically able to cope with it because if it went on for ages which it sometimes did I had to use all of my energy to keep it going until neither of us could go anymore and we literally collapsed and slept for so long afterwards if it was that energetic. **

**I was sad that our holiday had come to an end but we had to return to the mountain. We had been away for three months and we had to get back to the clan and then we had to return to the Cirque Du Freak because we needed to earn some money and the shows were not the same without our act. We added the unique aspect to the show that was required. **

**I wondered about Jodie I hoped that she had got the transplant that she needed in time because she was so young to be so ill like that. Life could be rather cruel to people. **

**We arrived back at the mountain and everybody was happy to see us and we had been away for a long time so we had of work to catch up on. I had a lot of duties to do because I had been away for ages and now I had to pull my weight again because I had missed so much. Larten was the same he also had a fair few duties to catch up on and although we had people filling in for us they had not done all of the work so we had to do the stuff that they had not done. **

**It was not easy keeping the mountain in order even with all of our improvements it still needed a lot of organising to keep it functioning. We had a major security overhaul after the vampaneze had invaded. **

**Everybody had to be checked by the guards which had been increased by several in number; they had new powers to search our quarters, they could also patrol the halls and they could stop any vampire at random to check that they were loyal to the clan; even the Princes got stopped and searched because of what Kurda Smalt had done to our clan. **

**It was scary but it was for the benefit of the clan that we had all of this security. I got searched a couple of times and so did Larten especially when we came back from Vampire Ville. We had to empty our bags and we had to have a body search to make sure that we were not carrying anything that we should not have been carrying; we were of course cleared and our bags were clean but you could not be too careful. **

**I was so glad that I was back at the mountain. I had missed my friends and they had missed me. I had a lot of work to catch up on; I had to help in the kitchen and then I had to go on a hunting trip with my group because we had not hunted for ages and it was our turn to go. After that I had to clean out our quarters because we had not used them for ages where we had been away so they needed painting and decorating and we needed to fix a few things up. **

**Larten and I could not decide on the decoration so we argued over it but in the end we compromised. Larten would decorate one half of the room and I would decorate the other half. We had to live there so we had to make it as nice as possible.**

**Larten did the fixing because I was no good at DIY but he was; my skills were with a paintbrush and a roller. I loved it when it was done; it was like a home away from home. It was luxury and we even had our own fire place; it was great because in the winter it was freezing.**

**Larten had attached a few things to the ceiling and he had some weight lifting equipment set up so that I could train and practice my acrobatics for the Cirque Du Freak show that we performed in.**


	19. Back to the Cirque Du Freak

**Chapter 19 Back to the Cirque Du Freak**

**After we had spent another few months in the mountain we returned to the Cirque Du Freak. I was surprised to see that everybody had grown up and Evra Von the snake boy was now a married man with his own son Shancus. **

**I saw that Truska and the others had all changed as well. Only Mr Tall and the both of us had not aged at all but I looked different. I saw the Sive and Seersa the twisting twins were no longer teenagers but young women which was scary because we had been away for that long. Even the Wolfman had grown a bit older. Some of his usual brown fur had gone grey and he seemed a lot quieter than what he had been when we had last left him. **

**To my shock when I was setting up the deckchairs for the show that night I saw a woman hanging around the stage. I thought that I recognised her but I was not sure.**

"**Hey you over there what are you up to?" I called out.**

"**Oh I was looking for Larten. Is he around?" The woman asked.**

"**He is in his trailer why are you looking for him?" I asked.**

"**Oh I have not seen him for years and we go a long way back." The woman answered.**

"**Well I am his blessed mate so I can pass a message on for you." I said.**

"**What is a blessed mate?" The woman asked.**

"**It is a vampire term. It is where two vampires basically get married but they call it a blessed mateship." I explained.**

"**So you are Larten's wife?" The woman said.**

"**Yes I am his wife. My name is Madam Crepsley but my friends call me Sarah." I said in reply. **

"**I did not recognise you Sarah. It's Jodie. Do you remember me?" Jodie asked.**

"**Of course I remember you. I see you got your transplant then." I replied.**

"**Yes. I just wanted to catch up with you both. I have come a long way to see you two again." Jodie responded.**

"**Well follow me and put this on." I said as I handed over a back stage pass.**

"**Ok then. It really is great to see you again Sarah." Jodie said.**

"**I am glad to see that you are looking well. How old are you now? You were sixteen when we last met." I asked.**

"**I am thirty now. It has been that long." Jodie replied.**

"**Seriously that long? I will just go and get Larten. Stay here and have a drink on me." I said as Jodie stood at our circus beer tent.**

**I went to get Larten who was training Madam Octa for our new act.**

"**Larten my love, you have a guest. Could you pop along with me to the beer tent please?" I asked when Madam Octa was safely in her terrarium. **

"**Yes of course. Who is my guest?" Larten asked.**

"**Wait and see. You will be quite surprised." I replied as we walked to the beer tent.**

**I saw that Jodie was sitting down with a pint of what looked like lemonade.**

"**Jodie we are here now." I said as Jodie turned around to see us.**

**To my surprise Jodie leapt up out of her seat and she seemed to be really excited and she had a huge grin on her face.**

"**Larten do you remember me?" Jodie asked.**

"**I think so. I believe that we met long ago and if I remember correctly I gave you your first kiss." Larten said.**

"**Yes that is correct. I never forgot it either. You made my head spin. I was just sixteen then but I am thirty now." Jodie said.**

"**So you have travelled all this way to see me. Obviously you know my blessed mate Sarah." Larten said.**

"**Yes of course. How could I forget her?" Jodie laughed.**

"**Are you here for the show?" I asked.**

"**I work here now. Mr Tall liked me so much that he gave me a job. I do the lighting for the acts when they come on stage." Jodie explained.**

"**That sounds so cool. I cannot believe how much that you have changed. Of course we have not aged due to the vampire blood in our veins." I replied.**

"**I wondered why you two look exactly the same. Nothing has changed with you except that you got hitched." Jodie said. **

"**It is so good to see that you are looking well. I am happy that you are working for us now. It makes a change from the usual shit human jobs." I said.**

"**Actually I am not completely human. Mr Tall bestowed a gift upon me. He got somebody to blood me six months ago. I am a half vampiress now but I have no mentor so Evra Von had the idea that maybe you would teach me your ways. I am quite content to stay at the Cirque Du Freak but I need help as you can understand." Jodie explained.**

"**Oh well I am sure that I can teach you a few things. Who blooded you?" I asked intrigued.**

"**Actually I do not know. Mr Tall would not tell me he just let it happen." Jodie explained.**

"**That is so unusual but I guess that he has his reasons. Anyway I will help you out Jodie. What can you do power wise?" I asked.**

"**All of the usual stuff except my blood lust is quite low. I hardly ever get the urge to feed although I feed regularly." Jodie said.**

"**Oh well that is normal. Every vampire has a different blood lust some are higher than others." I explained.**

"**Well I will help you Jodie. I can teach you our ways but it is not easy and eventually you will have to make the journey to the mountain with us to be presented to the clan." Larten explained.**

"**Very well that should not be a problem if you help me to get there. I have heard about the mountain but I have no idea where it is or how to get there." Jodie said.**

"**Do not worry we will prepare you fully for the journey. We go by train normally and then by bus until we go on foot to the actual summit where we enter the halls and then we are there." Larten said.**

"**That sounds like a real adventure. I am so looking forward to my extended life now. You will have to teach me everything that you know. I have no weapons either so that will have to be sorted." Jodie said.**

"**All in good time Jodie. We have centuries ahead to sort things like that out. Anyway we had better go through our lighting queues for our new act." I laughed as we left the beer tent for the stage. We had a couple of hours to work on our act before we had to go on and perform it. I was grateful that I had put in a lot of extra work because our new routine looked great but it was very hard to perform. We always changed our routine because it gave the audience something to marvel at. If we had an audience who had seen the show before then they would get a surprise if they saw a different routine and we were all about pleasing the audience. **

**I was happy that I was back at the Cirque Du Freak and Larten was glad to be back to his normal routine. We needed the work because we were both skint. The holiday was very expensive and it wiped out the last of our savings but it was so worth it. Jodie could take care of herself but she needed us to teach her how to be a good vampiress because she had no mentor to teach her as where Larten had taught me everything that I needed to know. **

**We went on stage and it was brilliant. We had a packed crowd to perform to and tonight Mr Tall had introduced us as;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Larten Crepsley, his wife Sarah and Madam Octa their performing spider." This was different but pretty accurate. **

**I did my acrobatic routine and then I did a few flips and tumbles before I played the flute and Larten did his act with the spider. **

**It went really well. I loved performing on the stage and when it was a packed auditorium I had more reason to do a great show because there were more people to impress. **

**I loved putting on shows for the public. My favourite move was walking on the balance beam; it was very thin but very strong. I could walk along it and do all kinds of flips and rolls on it using my supreme vampire balance and agility. I was also rather flexible which helped. It took a lot of training though even for a vampire it was not the easiest piece of equipment to use. It looked stunning though when I had my costume on and I looked like a proper gymnast or at least a professional circus performer. **

**I always had a red spotlight on me to make the crystals on my outfit shine even more; when I was in this red light it made my eyes flash and I was alluring to all of the male audience members who started fidgeting and coughing when I came on stage. The audience always wanted to meet me and I was happy to meet them but I could see that they were allured by me so I had to be careful because I did not want to put myself at risk and I did not want to reveal who I really was. I acted shy but happy to sign autographs and answer questions before Mr Tall came and ushered them away. **

**I overheard the audience members say stuff as they were leaving like;**

"**Sarah is so cool. She is so lucky. I wish I could perform like that." And another said;**

"**Sarah's husband is a very lucky guy. I wish that I got to sleep next to her. Can you imagine her in bed?" **

**I was flattered but I had to be careful. I knew that most audiences were fine but some may have taken things a bit far so I was always very cautious and Larten was never far away especially as I had already been abducted once but no human could possibly do that because I was so much stronger than them and I was so quick that they could not hold me; also I could snap most chains and ropes with ease so it would be pointless in trying but still I did not want them to try because I did not want to hurt anybody but if I had to then I would kill but only as a last resort. **

**I loved being at the Cirque Du Freak. It rocked because I had always been a performer and to be the centre of attention with all eyes on me was a dream come true. **

**Of course the only eyes that I looked at back were Larten's; he had this way of making me go all funny inside just by looking at me and sometimes on stage I got the urge to run over to him and kiss him but I could not so I had to wait until we were off stage and our act was over. Now that we had Jodie to take care of it meant that we did not get as much time alone as what we had enjoyed previously but we still made time to flit off and effectively disappear for a night or two so that we could be together and reinforce our bond. **

**It was hard for us but Mr Tall had heard complaints from the other circus performers because some nights we got a bit carried away and it was quite vocal and as a result nobody slept so we had been instructed to either keep the volume down or go off and do what we had to do. Luckily Larten knew of lots of woodland and he had shacks everywhere that were built for us to be together in.**

**We tried hard to keep the noise down but it was hard because it was just too good and now that I could take it Larten did not hold back; he made it hard, fast and good and as a result it was never long before my screams were heard along with a fair bit of shouting of each other's names out loud when I had tonnes of Larten's fluids ripping through me making the animal inside me come alive and when that sensation hit me I just had to go for it. **

**It was lucky that I could not get pregnant because I would have been pregnant several times over and then some but vampires are barren so they cannot get pregnant or make someone pregnant. **

**Mr Tall gave us two nights off a week so that we could go and be together and on those nights he took over Jodie. Mr Tall trained her and he made sure that she was well looked after whilst we were away. **

**We stayed with the Cirque Du Freak for many months because the mountain got boring after a while as where the circus was exciting and because we never knew where we would be performing next it was fun to literally travel the world, astound and terrify audiences all over the UK and abroad. **

**One night Larten got a message from his old mentor Seba saying that one of the Princes had died and that we were required to attend his funeral as were all clan members. Luckily the Cirque Du Freak was going near to the mountain so we separated at the new camp ground and with Jodie in tow we set off back to the mountain to pay our respects to Paris Skyle who was well over seven hundred years old. He had endured a long and eventful life and he died in his sleep so it was not as though he had suffered but he had seen many things; he told us that he met William Shakespeare and he had given Bram Stoker the idea for Dracula.**

**We were not sure if it was true but nobody ever doubted the word of a vampire Prince, especially one as respected as Paris Skyle. I was sad for the loss of Paris but because I had not known him that well I would not miss him as much as Larten would. The funeral of a Prince was always taken seriously with every clan member attending and everybody was in black mourning robes. I had to borrow a set as I had none I had worn colour to Arra's funeral as that was her request. **

**I stood with Larten and I could feel the sadness in the air; some vampires were finding it hard to keep their emotions in check. It was seen as weakness to show emotion in public so quite a lot of the clan retired to their quarters to let it out as it were Larten included. I stayed in the halls but when Seba came to fetch me I had to go with him. Larten had been asking for me so as his blessed mate I had to retire to our quarters also. **

**I did not feel like crying because I did not know Paris but I felt the loss like everybody did. Without Paris the clan would not be the same, he had done so much in his seven hundred years and now he was watching us from Paradise. It was a very sad occasion to introduce Jodie to the clan but she fitted in ok except she was no good with death; she was very emotional as it had hit her hard though she had not intended it to and she stood there during the funeral with silent tears flowing from her eyes and Jodie was not the only one to cry silently practically all of the clan had wet eyes at some point or another during the funeral let alone when they were in their quarters. **

**For those who felt like it there was food provided and then we held the traditional life celebrations which gave thanks to Paris for his time that he devoted to all of us. In the beginning he had helped me out and when Larten was not around he had been my guide so that I did not get lost as much of the mountain had not been explored at that time. **

**I was grateful for the guiding hand that Paris had given me when Larten had been busy with his duties. We had not been together much in the beginning as we had to settle in and we had to organise things; the only time that we had together was when we were in our quarters alone to sleep the day away before we had become mates officially. However we still mated as it strengthened our bond and we did love each other even though in the beginning we had to keep our relationship and our sessions quiet because of Arra and as her quarters were not far from ours we had to time it so that she would not find out and lay into me before we had been introduced properly.**

**I was very sad for quite a while after the funeral and Larten was the same way. He was not as sad as what he had been when Arra had been killed. When that had taken place he was inconsolable for weeks and I cried because he was hurting and it hurt me to see him hurting so deeply. **

**I will not deny that in private Larten and I both shed tears for Prince Paris because we would miss him and Larten had been fond of him as he had been like a second mentor when Seba had not been around to guide him and to teach him. It was not often that you got to see a vampire show their emotions but when you did see get to see it; it was not a pleasant thing because it was such a sad occasion and it affected everybody. **

**Neither Larten nor I slept very well for the next few days as we were still upset and we found it hard to perform our duties without bursting into tears every time Paris's name was mentioned and though I did not know him that well I still felt his loss and it was a tough time for us all. **

**I remember clearly that one night Larten was almost crying but he was trying hard not to and I was the same. I remember looking into Larten's eyes and seeing them slightly wet but mine were flowing then he did something that I never thought that he would do; he pulled me close and we buried our heads into each other's chests and cried a lot silently but it was still the most emotion that I had seen from my mate in a long time.**

**I was happy to get back on the Bars but no one wanted to duel so I was really bored until Seba hopped up onto the Bars and he challenged me. I had never duelled Seba before so it was exciting. **

"**Sarah I challenge you. Do you accept my challenge?" Seba asked me.**

"**Yes I accept your challenge. I will not take it easy on you." I replied.**

"**I would not expect you to take it easy on me. Just duel me." Seba said.**

"**Ok then Seba let's duel." I said then I asked;**

"**Where is Larten? Have you seen my blessed mate?"**

"**Larten is in your quarters. I will go and get him." Vanez called up to us.**

**So we waited for Vanez to return. We could not duel before then because Vanez was the referee. **

**Soon enough Vanez returned with Larten who stood right at the front to watch his ex-mentor duel his blessed mate. **

"**Duellists are you ready?" Vanez asked us.**

"**Yes." I said.**

"**Bring it on." Seba replied.**

"**Duellists salute." So we knocked our staves together.**

"**Begin." Vanez called out and we began to duel. Seba was so quick that I found it hard to dodge his shots but I just managed it. He was like Arra with his speed but his combos were relatively basic compared to mine. I used my acrobatic skills to my full advantage, I flipped over Seba and I brought my staff down on his head as I went over the top of him, I twisted round and did the same move in quick succession. Seba dropped to his knees stunned and bleeding badly from his head. I thought that I had fractured Seba's skull. **

"**Enough. I surrender. The victory is yours Sarah." Seba said.**

"**Thank you Seba." I replied. We shook hands and then Seba passed out. We carried him to the medical wing and the medic patched him up as best as he could because Seba's skull was indeed fractured right down the middle. It was a severe injury but that is the risk that you take when you step up onto the Bars.**

**I felt bad but Seba had challenged me and he had fallen so it was not like I had done anything wrong. All of my moves had been legal and everyone knew that I had been well trained. **

**I had such a great time in the mountain but it was a shame that we had to be there for a funeral; when we returned to the Cirque Du Freak we had to catch up with our friends because we had not performed for ages and people missed us. Mr Tall had said that the show was not the same without us. We really had to stay with the show for a long time to make up for all the time that we had missed…**

**Three years later**

**For the next three years we travelled the world with the Cirque Du Freak and we performed all over the world. My favourite destination was Romania. They loved us out there because of all their vampire legends and because of their association with demons we were always performing to a packed crowd. Although we did not speak Romanian they got the jist of what we were trying to communicate in our acts. **

**I was a common talking point for the Romanian crowds. I was told by Mr Tall that the audience were always saying how stunning I was and how I had to be a demon because no human could do what I could do. I liked the mystery but one night I was discovered by accident. **

**It happened when one audience member had managed to sneak backstage and she had caught Larten and I kissing by our trailer; that was not the problem the problem was that we had fed and we were sharing blood between us as we kissed and when she shouted at us we jumped for we had been too engrossed in our kiss to spot her, the shock had made us cough up some of the blood and of course it was on our clothes and on my mouth. That was enough for the woman to start screaming things in Romanian that were roughly translated as;**

"**Vampires, demons help someone the legends are true. Help there are vampires here run and grab your flaming torches." This was shouted out loud and the whole camp heard it. **

**The sheer noise was enough to disturb the whole camp who were asleep as it was late for them but for us it was early. Larten wasted no time; he moved like lightning and he grabbed the woman around her throat, I heard it snap and she slumped to the floor dead. We cleaned up the mess and buried the body just before Mr Tall arrived and saw what had happened. **

"**What has happened here?" Mr Tall asked.**

"**We were sharing blood after a feed and a woman saw us. She started screaming which woke up the whole camp so I snapped her neck and buried her over there. She must have sneaked past security, seen us doing what we were doing, panicked and then she did what she thought was best but now she is dead and it is my fault." Larten explained as he pointed out the woman's final resting place. **

"**You did what you had to do Larten. We should move away from here and go to a new camp ground." Mr Tall said decisively as he left.**

"**Yes I think that would be best. We have been in Romania long enough." I agreed. I turned around to see Larten with his head in his hands.**

"**What is up? Are you Ok?" I asked.**

"**No I am not ok. I should not have acted like that. I should have knocked that woman out instead of killing her but it is too late now. I killed an innocent human in cold blood. I am a murderer." Larten said.**

"**Do not think like that. You made a split second decision to prevent further trouble. If that woman had lived she could have caused no end of problems and as hard as it is to hear you did the right thing." I replied.**

"**I guess so but I still regret it. Anyway we had better pack up as we are moving on." Larten said.**

"**Yes. Is there anything that I can do to help?" I asked.**

"**Just pack up our clothes and find Jodie as she needs to help us out." Larten replied.**

"**Ok. Jodie where are you?" I called out as I left to find her.**

"**I'm over here with Evra." Jodie called back.**

"**Larten needs your help packing. We are moving on tonight because of that kerfuffle." I explained.**

"**Oh right; give me a moment I am in a bit of a tangle." Jodie said.**

**I poked my head around the flap of the tent to see that Evra's snake had coiled itself around Jodie's body and it was not budging. **

"**Let me help. Evra you take the head, I will take the tail and we will uncoil it together." I said as I took hold of the snake's tail. **

"**Alright let's give it a go." I said as I carefully began to unwind the snake. It was not long but it was strong and rather thick muscled. We carefully unwound the snake and Jodie left to find Larten whilst I helped Evra put his snake back into its vivarium which it went in whilst we were travelling from place to place. **

**It was a shame that we had to move on so soon but it was for the safety of the whole camp. We could not risk being discovered and persecuted or worse driven out of the campsite because for many of the performers they were only safe with the Cirque du Freak and without it they would spend the rest of their lives on the street as nobody would take them in out of fear or out of sheer arrogance. They were seen as second class citizens in many countries and they were treated accordingly. **

**I was glad to be out of Romania because although we normally got a good crowd it could be cold and the weather was not always the best. Also we had to put up with vampire fanatics who were desperate to become vampires but they were not really up to standard. We got asked frequently by people if we were vampire fans or if we knew of any real vampires and it got tedious. We of course denied all knowledge but we could see the passion of some of these people who had done everything that they could to look vampiric down to the pale skin and some even gave themselves scars to look more authentic. **

**In the end these vampire wannabes had no knowledge of our ways and they could not match up to our skills and as for our way of life it scared them because they were too used to human comforts, human jobs, modern society and human technology that we had to go without. **

**I was happy that we had moved into the Czech Republic and around the other Baltic States. I liked Eastern Europe and its culture and its traditional way of living. Ukraine was the nicest place that I had been to in a while but the Czech Republic citizens were very welcoming and we felt at home. They did not have a big vampire culture unlike Romania, they were more into zombies and werewolves as that was their culture based upon all the forests that they had in their country. **

**I loved the food and Larten spoke the language so we got around easily and some people spoke English anyway so I could communicate roughly but it was easier to let Larten do the talking. He had travelled around Eastern Europe with Seba when he was his assistant before he joined the Cirque Du Freak. Then Larten and Seba travelled to the mountain. This was a long time before Larten met Arra. I was quite able to get around the town with Larten acting as my translator before we had to perform that evening. I spoke a little Russian but Russian is not much use in the Czech Republic or in Ukraine but it was spoken in Estonia and some of the other states. We went to Albania, we also performed in Bulgaria and Poland then finally we ended up in Germany and we were the nearest that we had been to England in many years.**

**I missed England so badly. I loved the culture, the food and the people as I had been born and brought up there. Larten had also been born there but it was very different when he had been my age. He came from a poor family where food was scarce and he had to work from a young age in a silk factory where he had been at the mercy of a very cruel man who had killed his friend Vur Horston. **

**That is where Larten got his alias from and that is how his hair had been dyed orange permanently; his boss had dyed the employee's heads different colours depending on what part of the factory they worked in. You started at dawn and finished when the sun was setting. It was awful and it paid little as well.**

**Larten had been on the run for stealing food when he met Seba who had rescued him and given him a place to sleep then Larten became blooded and that was it then; his life changed for the better and then nearly two hundred years passed and Larten spent them travelling around the world, meeting people and fighting. I already knew about the several ladies that Larten had been involved with and that was when he was still young so there must have been hundreds that had a connection to Larten in some way. **

**I got the shock of my life when I walked into a book store and found a rather old diary on one of the shelves. I opened it out of interest and I bought it. It was written in German so I had to get it translated but two words kept cropping up and those two words were Larten Crepsley. **

**I took it back to Larten who was also very surprised when I presented it to him. It did not take long for Larten to translate it for me but I had to help him read some of it as his reading was ok but not that great. **

"**Can you explain this?" I asked with a look of intrigue on my face.**

"**Yes. I never thought that I would see this again. It belonged to a lady who I was with for a while when I was but a young man." Larten stated.**

"**It sounds like an account of two people who were in love or at least it is a story of a young girl who had begged you to blood her and get her away from her abusive family." I said.**

"**You could see it like that. I did not know that this lady had been so detailed in her account of our time together. I was quite smitten but Seba said that we had to move on and I never saw her again. I missed her so badly and then before I knew it I found her grave and then I had to move on to pastures new." Larten explained ruefully.**

"**Who was this lady?" I asked.**

"**A lady named Beatrice." Larten said simply.**

**I then proceeded to read an extract from the diary…**

"…**Larten came and visited me this evening. I was so happy to be reunited with my love once more that I nearly collapsed into his arms where I was overwhelmed. We shared a bottle of wine and then we went out. I begged Larten to blood me but he refused saying that I was too young so he made love to me instead. I could not have given my innocence to a more deserving man. I have his cloak wrapped around me as I write in this book. If Larten ever learns to read I hope that he will not mind me writing down our time together so that he can remember me for years to come. **

**I hope that I will be blooded one day and married but I will have to see what is in store for me. **

**Alas it is late and need to sleep. This was written on the seventh day of September 1875. "**

"**Ok that is one detailed account. You never mentioned this Beatrice before." I said.**

"**That is because I did not want to hurt anymore. Beatrice died young and I could have saved her by blooding her but I refused. She was sixteen, she caught cholera and she succumbed to the disease." Larten explained.**

"**I see. You have not had much luck with ladies have you?" I asked.**

"**Well not really. I learned from that mistake and from that time on I only had one night stands so as the human girls in question did not get too attached to me and so that I did not get attached to them because they would grow old and die while I was still young." Larten replied sadly.**

"**Oh right. You have this diary now. I can read more out of it if you like." I offered.**

"**I think that it would be good to know what Beatrice thought about me." Larten said.**

"**Ok I will read another two extracts." I said so I did.**

"…**Larten has not visited me for a week. I am sure that he cannot have forgotten me already. I fear that I may be with child but I am unsure. I will have to wait and see if I have my monthly bleed. I hope that Larten and I will marry soon regardless of whether I am with child or not for he is the best man and the kindest person that I have met in my short life. I am but sixteen but I feel a lot older and if I am to be blooded I hope it will be soon because I have a desire to travel and to follow Larten wherever he goes as his loving wife and mother of his son hopefully.**

**I hope that Larten visits me tonight or tomorrow because I miss having somebody to talk to and somebody to sleep next to. Besides he must come back for his cloak that I still sleep under each night…**

**This was written on the fifteenth day of September 1875."**

"…**Larten came to me tonight. He brought me a gift of a necklace. I am sure that I cannot be deserving of such a piece of jewellery. It sparkles in the light and it is said to be a real gemstone. I am not with child as Larten explained that he cannot have children due to his blood. I am upset about that but at least I have him. I asked him again if we were to marry and he said maybe we would if I was a bit older and therefore able to be blooded. I hope that he does not wait too long as I am not well. I think that I have a fever and a cold but with no money I dare not call the doctor out.**

**I love Larten so much and he says that he loves me but if he did then we would have announced our engagement by now. I fear that I have not long left for this life and shortly I will be watching over Larten from the heavens. I hope that I live long enough to be married and then Larten can save me. I know that his blood can save me. Feelings inside have told me it to be so…**

**This was written on the seventeenth day of September 1875."**

"**I can understand how Beatrice felt. I am glad that I found this. I am dying to know about your past. I find it fascinating." I said after I finished reading the extracts.**

"**I should have blooded Beatrice when I had the chance because then she would have survived the cholera. I called the doctor but he could do nothing for her so she slipped away and I did not know until I returned and found her pauper's grave in the local churchyard. I was so upset but I could do nothing so I moved on with Seba and I did not look back. Beatrice was always in my thoughts and it took years before I forgot about her not that I wanted to forget but it hurt me to think of how I let her die when I could have saved her. Seba made me move on and I resented him for a long time but when I met the other ladies that I slept with I forgot my pain and that is why I was such a promiscuous young vampire but I am not like that now as you know." Larten explained.**

"**I see. I guess that Arra helped you get over that as well." I mused.**

"**No actually I never mentioned Beatrice to Arra. It was one thing that I wanted to be kept private between Seba and I but now that you know I trust that you will not say anything to anybody." Larten said. **

"**Of course I will not say anything. I hope that you are glad that you have me by your side because I am not likely to die or abandon you anytime soon. I need you and you need me. We are meant to be together Larten I can feel it. I am pleased that I found that diary now. You can keep it to remember Beatrice by. I think that she would have wanted you to have it." I said.**

"**I think that is true. I love you Sarah. I truly do but I have a past and much of it is dark. I have seen things and I have experienced things that no one should have to go through vampire or not. I have been around the world and I have fought in many wars but I have always managed to come out of it unscathed. My darkest nights were spent in Opium Dens and in taverns. I was a rebellious and uncontrollable vampire when I was first blooded but with Seba's guidance I was able to beat my addictions and I have got rid of most of my personal demons but a few haunting memories remain." Larten admitted. **

"**Well for every bad memory I am sure that you have many good ones. You must have a few happy memories to counteract the bad ones." I said.**

"**I have lots of happy memories. I have lots to be thankful for and I owe Seba big time for all of his help and his guidance. I thank the gods every night for you because without you where would I be? It is us against the world and we are winning Sarah." Larten said. **

"**I am glad that I have been able to help you. I have been like a calming influence on you and I have supported you through thick and thin. I never gave up on you even when you abandoned me for Samantha I still came back to you although I had every right not to after what you did to me." I said.**

"**I understand that Sarah and I am so happy that you did come back to me but after my conduct I was surprised. I asked you to become my blessed mate to show you and the clan exactly what I feel for you and I also hoped to make up for my conduct because I treated you appallingly in the nineteen months that we were apart. I could never leave you now though not even if the world was offered to me on a plate. I am deeply attached to you and without you by my side I feel like one half of me is missing." Larten explained. **

"**That is so sweet. You can be so loving at times. I feel incredibly honoured and I know that I have said that before but I mean every word of it. Without you I have no heart, no soul and no body because you own all of those things. I gave them to you and so far you have taken good care of them." I responded then I continued to say;**

"**I am so lucky. I look at my rings and my bracelet all the time and even when you are not there I can feel your presence all around me and it is like no matter where we are we will never be separated." **

"**I am the same. I look at my ring when we are apart and it reminds of what I get to come home to every night. It reminds me of how fortunate I am that you took me back and it also reminds me to stay faithful to you not that I need reminding of my duties to you my beloved blessed mate." Larten replied.**

**At this point we realised how late we were for our performance so Mr Tall put us on last to close the show with a dazzling display of acrobatics and a new trapeze act that I performed with Sive and Seersa the twisting twins. **

**After my first act with the twins Mr Tall scolded me for being late as it was highly unprofessional but Mr Tall let me off and I returned on stage to shouts for more from the audience even though the show was supposed to have been over. Larten came on with me for my second act. I performed a few stunts with Larten's help and that was enough to send the crowd into a standing ovation.**

**We did a very dangerous balancing act whilst swinging from the trapeze and it went really well. We did one final act on the high wire and then that really was the end of the show for that night. I was exhausted because swinging on the trapeze used a lot of energy. Being on the high wire and walking along it on my hands with my feet in the air was very difficult but my landing was the most dangerous bit. I had to flip off and land with my hands on top of Larten's shoulders in a hand stand position before I finally waved to the crowd whilst still keeping my balance and then I could finally put my feet back on the ground. **

**I could not believe how much the crowd had enjoyed our act. It was like a normal circus act but I was so fast and so accurate I could vault up onto the high wire and it was like being on the Bars but it was a lot narrower. I could vault into the air from the ground, grab hold of the wire and pull myself up. Then I could dismount and land in some kind of gymnastic finishing pose. **

**It was amazing to watch because I was jumping like forty foot in to the air straight up. I looked like a human kangaroo but obviously I was not human. **

**I was happy that the show had gone well; Larten and I trained hard to get the timings perfect because one false move would spell disaster for both of us and Madam Octa who was also on stage not to mention the audience. **

**Being in Eastern Europe we took a short trip to Moscow in the winter and then we went to a city called Siberia. The plan was to go ice skating on a lake called Moskva-reka. It was absolutely freezing! It was minus 20 degrees. We bought a pair of skates and we tried it out. The ice was thick and it was snowing heavily but I loved snow and our clothing kept us warm anyway. We had fur lined cloaks on and fur lined thick boots that we wore until we put our skates on. **

**I had never skated before but Larten was an experienced skater as it was one of Arra's favourite hobbies. It was something that Arra looked forward to every winter. She would flit to the nearest lake with Larten and they would spend all night on the ice dancing and they looked like professionals. **

**Sometimes it would draw a human crowd who would gather round to watch the show. It brought back memories for Larten who had not been skating for a long time. He remembered all of the lifts though and I spent more time in the air than I did on the ice. I learned quickly and soon I was going around the lake at speed and I even tried to do a double toe loop and a couple of other skating moves that I had seen on television. **

**It was such a fun night out and it made change from the usual night out which normally involved us in a pub with a lot of vodka and it nearly always ended in embarrassment. **

**I was quite good at skating around the lake but it took me quite a while to get good and it and to get my balance right because my vampire speed made me almost lose it and a couple of times I went flying when I jumped up to perform a trick. I vaulted into the air and I landed in a pile of snow because the sheer force had made me land the trick hard and it had made me skid into the pile of snow. **

**I was not bad though and Larten showed off some of his skills and then he taught me a routine that we could perform to; we only needed music so I got my battery powered IPod and speakers out and covered them over so that the snow would not get to them. We were soon ice dancing to a few tunes and we noticed a small crowd of night walkers watching us. We performed our routine and then everyone was skating around and performing tricks. We moved onto another frozen pond that was bigger as we needed more room to skate. I did not do much skating because Larten kept scooping me up and performing lifts with me including the very dangerous head banger lift and the necklace lift. It was scary but it made my adrenaline pulse and I had total faith in Larten. He would not drop me even when he balanced me above his head with one hand holding me only. **

**After a couple of hours of ice dancing we went for a feed because I was cold and I was thirsty so warm blood was what I needed. We both had a feed and then we returned to the trailer because the sun was rising and we were shattered. **

**I had such a good time on the ice and I loved ice dancing. We got quite a crowd and when they were watching us it made me feel great although admittedly I did not do much skating. I spent practically the whole time in the air which was so much fun because Larten was showing off his great strength to everyone cared to watch us. **

**I had watched ice dancing on TV when I was human and I had always dreamed of doing it for real and now I was it was amazing. I wanted a sparkly costume and the full works but it was freezing so I decided to ask Larten if we could find a proper skating rink indoors and then we could hire the rink for a couple of hours so that we could practice alone. I was dying to wear a proper skating costume. I wanted one that was red with gold and red sparkly crystals all over it. **

"**Can I get an ice dancing costume please?" I asked.**

"**What do you mean costume? You would freeze out there if not for our fur cloaks." Larten replied; he sounded agitated.**

"**I want to go to a proper skating rink indoors and wear a proper ice dance costume like they do on TV." I explained.**

"**You mean like Torvil and Dean?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes exactly that. I want to look the part and I am sure that you would look good in red Lycra with sparkles on it. It would show off your muscles and we would look professional." I said.**

"**But we are not professional skaters we are vampires and circus performers. However if you want to do this then I can see no harm in it. We need a hobby besides duelling on the Bars." Larten replied.**

"**I agree. How much money do we have? It can be quite expensive to get those costumes." I asked tentatively.**

"**We have a few hundred roubles but we get paid tonight so we should have enough to get a couple of costumes as it were." Larten said. He did not sound excited at the prospect of wearing red Lycra with sparkles on it. **

"**Alright cool. I will pop to the shop tomorrow before the sun gets too high in the sky. You may have to come with me to be measured up because they make the costumes from scratch and I would hate to get something if it did not fit or if you did not like it because there are several styles to choose from." I explained.**

"**Alright that is fine. We will flit there tomorrow but right now I am going to bed. We have a long night ahead of us. You can pick up our wages and then come back here and join me." Larten said.**

"**Are you ok? You seem a bit off with me." I asked.**

"**I am ok but I am tired and the idea of wearing sparkly costumes to ice dance when our normal clothing is fine does not appeal to me." Larten said.**

"**Oh right. You have no problem wearing our Cirque Du Freak costumes. They are worse trust me." I laughed.**

"**I can see your point. What was Truska thinking?" Larten asked me whilst trying not to laugh.**

"**I have no idea. The idea of wearing that awful neon green suit when you only wear red must have been torture. Lucky Mr Tall swapped it over. My outfit was worse. You saw that canary yellow feathered monstrosity did you not?" I laughed. **

"**I promised us that we would never let Truska pick out our costumes ever again. Can you imagine what she would put on us for ice dancing? Some hot pink number I imagine with feathers or something along those lines." Larten said. **

"**Ugh no way it is not happening! I refuse to wear anything like that." I said.**

"**I could not agree more. Maybe we should dress Truska up as revenge for her awful taste in clothing." Larten suggested.**

"**Definitely, this Christmas we will dress her up as a Christmas tree or something." I said laughing.**

"**Yes that would be a sight. Truska in green with those ball-ball things hanging off of her and a big hat with a star on it and lights wrapped around her." Larten smirked.**

"**We are so doing that this year. We can get photos too because she shows up on film but we do not." I replied with a huge grin on my face. **

"**That will be our gift to her, a Christmas tree outfit. You had better go and get our wages." Larten said.**

"**Yes I guess that I should go now. See you a bit later my love." I said as I left to go and get our wages from Mr Tall. **

**I arrived and I picked up two brown envelopes with a whole load of notes in. Mr Tall paid his performers well and if they put on a great show then they got a bonus. I had earned my bonus for the display on the high wire that I put on.**

**I told Mr Tall about my plans for Truska and our idea.**

"**What do you think?" I asked.**

"**Brilliant. That would be a sight to see." Mr Tall replied.**

"**So you do not mind?" I asked.**

"**No, it would brighten up the camp and it would save me having to buy a tree." Mr Tall sniggered.**

"**Alright then, see you later." I said and I left to go to bed now that I was a couple of thousand roubles better off than what I had been earlier. **

**I returned to the trailer and I snuggled down in my bed after I had put the money in the safe that we had. I thought that Larten was already asleep so I tried hard not to wake him when I got into bed. I was tired also because the ice dancing had made me worn out. I slipped my night dress on and crept into bed slowly and quietly. I thought that Larten was asleep but he wasn't he was thinking with his eyes shut. He heard me get into bed so he turned and faced me then he spoke,**

"**Did you get our wages?"**

"**Yes I put them in the safe I thought that you were asleep." I replied.**

"**No I was merely thinking about you and what I can do to you to get you excited." Larten said.**

"**Well I am shattered. I have barely any energy so I cannot do much to you." I responded.**

"**Oh right. You would prefer not to mate then?" Larten asked me, he sounded upset.**

"**I did not say that. I just said that I cannot do much so you would need to take the lead as it were. My legs hurt, my back hurts and my whole body hurts. Those lifts were fun but that head banger lift made me really push myself and I did my high wire act which also put pressure on my body. If we do mate just be careful. I cannot cope with you at your full power I need to take it slow." I explained.**

"**Very well I can take it slowly if you like. I just need to mate. I have been getting urges frequently but as we have been busy I have not had time to whisk you away and satisfy my desires." Larten said.**

"**Why did you not say anything? I could have got the night off if you had of told me." I asked.**

"**I was trying to control myself because I did not want to hurt you and then prevent you from skating." Larten said.**

"**Oh right. We had better get on with it then if you have been getting urges. It is my duty to satisfy your carnal hunger. I need it too but I am always scared to ask for it. I wait for you to initiate it and then I do my best to make you happy." I said.**

**Larten did not reply he just kissed me and then we got into it. It was slow and gentle but it was so good. I loved it so much and the only bad thing that happened was that my night dress got slashed into pieces and it was completely destroyed. It was the fourth night dress that had been slashed into pieces by Larten so I had to buy yet another new one but when the inner animal came out Larten had next to no control over himself, he was only interested in one thing and that was making me scream no matter what the cost was. I had to return the favour but that came naturally. All I had to do was get on top and rock my hips in some kind of rhythm so that we both got some kind of feeling out of it before we let ourselves go and let the power take us to a new level of sensation. **

**I loved it but it was hard to maintain my position because I was so tired and exhausted. I did my best but it was not as good as it should have been. I was angry that Larten had slashed my night dress because it meant that I had to buy another one. I had bruises on my shoulders that looked like hand prints where Larten had been a bit rough with me even though he said that he would be gentle which also annoyed me because they hurt when I moved.**

**When I spoke to Larten later that night I was quite upset with him. We went to the sports shop to get our ice dancing outfits sorted and we spoke barely two words to each other. I went behind the screen and I got measured up. I was embarrassed because of the bruises and because of the bites that I had on me but the lady said nothing about it to me. I think that she had seen marks and bruised people before. **

**I picked my costume style and that was it really. It was like a dancing leotard but it had long sleeves on it. Larten had one that was similar but it had short sleeves and it had trousers as where mine had a skirt at the bottom. We could pick them up in a couple of days' time when they had been made for us. They were not cheap either but I had insisted upon it and Larten owed me for what he had done to me the previous night. **

**The next thing that I did was to buy myself another night dress that was hopefully not going to get slashed into pieces. I was so angry that Larten had slashed my night dress. It was a really nice one too with lace and it was made out this satin type material. He had slashed it and then he ripped it off of me to expose my flesh when we had been in bed. **

**In revenge I made Larten buy me the most expensive night dress that the shop had and then I made him buy me new shoes as well because there is nothing like a bit of retail therapy to make you feel better after you have been upset. **

"**That is nearly all of my wages spent on you. Sarah you must control yourself. You know how much money we owe people because our blessing was not cheap and neither is your taste in clothing." Larten scolded me.**

"**Well you owe me for last night. You slashed that night dress into pieces so you should replace it and as for the shoes I wanted some. I am enjoying some retail therapy to get over you upsetting me. You owe me. Did you see the bruises that you gave me? I have hand shaped bruises on my shoulders from yesterday where you were too rough." I said angrily.**

"**No I did not see them. Was I really that rough? I was trying to be gentle but you know how I get when I am with you." Larten said.**

"**I know exactly what you get like so that is why you owe me. I am in a lot of pain right now. Every inch of me hurts and I am covered in bruises and bites thanks to you." I replied.**

"**I apologise. I lost control of myself. I had not intended to go that far. I guess the adrenaline in my body meant that I did not notice how rough I was being." Larten replied.**

"**Well you will have to patch me up later. I need some of these wounds sorted out as they are quite bad. I need some of that salve that you put on bruises to reduce the swelling." I said.**

"**I am truly sorry though I had no idea what I had done and I will of course patch you up if it is required." Larten said as we returned to our trailer.**

"**You realise that I cannot perform tonight because I am so sore I doubt that I could concentrate on my act." I said.**

"**I will speak to Mr Tall." Larten said as he started to patch up my bruised and battered body. I thought that my body was 40% bruises and bites and the rest of me was scars and a small amount of skin that was unaffected by anything. I went to Mr Tall's van to show him how damaged I was and he could clearly see that I was not up to performing so he shifted the performance rota to fill in the gap that I had left by not performing. I was too bruised to go on stage.**

**No amount of make-up would cover my wounds so I had to wear bandages and clothing that covered all of my body instead of the usual clothing that I wore which showed off some flesh but not a lot. **

**I was still upset with Larten. I watched the show from the performer's box where we waited if we were not performing or if we wanted to watch the show. I sat in the centre at the front so that I got the best view. I watched in awe because there were a few acts that I had not seen as they were new to the show. **

**Mr Tall was always bringing on new performers. Now that Evra Von's children were big enough they went on stage with him and they were part of the act, we had other new acts including a woman who could click her fingers and by doing so she could start a fire and there was a man who could make ice come out of his mouth. All he had to do was suck in some air and blow it out as ice cubes. It was brilliant. **

**I watched Larten's act. He had not performed alone for a long time so he just did his old style flute act with Madam Octa. It was good and the best part was where he got Madam Octa to spin a web over his mouth and then he went on with his usual show except at the end when Madam Octa was safely in her cage he looked up at me and he said to the audience;**

"**Ladies and gentlemen before I finish my act tonight I would like to give a shout out to my lovely blessed mate Sarah who is in the audience tonight. She should be on stage but she is not well so I would like to say get well my love and I am so sorry." Then Larten bowed and he left the stage but a huge spot light was on me so I had to stand up and wave to the audience and that was the end of the show.**

**I was embarrassed but I had expected Larten to do something like that so that I would not be left out completely. I was lucky that vampires have accelerated healing powers because I knew that I could not miss another show. **

**I went to bed early because I needed to heal but before I went to bed I had a hot shower because I knew that it would help my muscles to recover quicker. I wanted to try on my ice dance outfit but it was not ready and I would have to wait until I had healed fully before I ventured onto the ice again. **

**I was shattered even though I had not done anything all night. I could not even hunt because I was so tired so I sent Larten out to hunt for me because I needed to feed and I needed a good meal too.**

**I had not been taking care of myself because I had been so busy with my duties and my act that I had neglected to feed or cook anything. I had been living on energy drinks and a bit of tinned food that I had so I was quite weak by vampire standards. That is why Larten had bruised me so badly, it was not him entirely it was me as well where I had not had the energy to withstand Larten's moves as it were.**

**I had not even thought about feeding regularly so now I was paying the price for it. When Larten returned from his hunt he had filled up our flasks and he had brought home a couple of rabbits which we skinned and ate after they had been spit roasted. **

**I was so hungry I ate a whole rabbit and I emptied my flask of blood in seconds. I never ate like that before but the inner animal took over and I stuffed my face before I could stop myself. I went to bed happy and full and in the evening when I got up I felt so much better. Much of the swelling had been reduced and the bruises were starting to fade already. **

**I looked a lot better and the colour had come back to my cheeks not that I had much colour in my cheeks anyway being a vampiress and all. **

**I knew that when I had recovered I would be able to perform at the Cirque Du Freak again and earn my place on the line up. I loved travelling around the Baltic States and around Eastern Europe but I also knew that I would be going to Asia and then finally to America because those were the only continents that we had not visited yet. I had been all over the world and I had seen many things in my life but I knew that I had to put that behind me because I was needed and without me the shows were not the same. **

**I was looking forward to visiting Asia because that meant that we would be going to India and Japan but before that I got to go ice dancing and I tried out my new outfit. It looked amazing and I absolutely loved it. I was adorned in red Lycra that was covered in crystals and my skates were also made to look similar to my outfit. I was happy to skate on the river but my secret hope was to find a skating rink, hire it out and use that to dance in because then I could play my music and nobody would disturb us which would give Larten and I some quality time together. **

**Everything was perfect and my life was brilliant but then something happened that threw my life into turmoil…**


	20. Des Tiny's Revenge

**Chapter 20 Des Tiny's Revenge**

**I was looking forward to moving on to Asia with the Cirque Du Freak. I could not wait to visit India and spoil myself by buying some Saris and some material to make Truska into a Christmas tree. It was going to be hilarious when Truska looked in the mirror to see herself clad in green material, leaves and tinsel.**

**I was in our trailer picking out colours for Truska's outfit when there was a knock on the door. Larten was not around so I grabbed my sword and answered the door a little way to see who it was. It was Mr Tiny of all people. I let him in and he sat down on the armchair whilst I stood up to hear what he had to say.**

"**Sarah I cannot believe you. You killed my lovely vampaneze and in doing so you ruined my glorious apocalypse. I am here for revenge on you and the only way that I can get revenge is by giving you what the whole clan has always wanted but never had. I am giving you a baby that will be half human, half vampire. The clan will be so jealous that you will be shunned and thrown out and Larten will not want anything to do with a kid because he hates children." **

**Des Tiny roared as he pounced upon me, touched my stomach and whispered some inaudible words in a strange language. Then he vanished before I could do anything about it. **

**Larten came back a few hours later to find me collapsed on the bed in tears. I was petrified about the whole situation and I was even more scared of Larten's reaction.**

"**Larten I am in big trouble. Both of us are in a lot of trouble" I sobbed into my pillow.**

"**Why what has happened?" Larten asked me, he looked worried.**

"**Des Tiny has had his revenge on us for killing the vampaneze and ending his apocalypse." I explained.**

"**Why what has he done Sarah?" Larten asked.**

"**Larten he has violated me. He has made me pregnant with a half human half vampire" I said.**

"**But how has he done it? It is impossible for us to get pregnant or sire children. You know that" Larten said.**

"**He pounced on me, touched my stomach and whispered some inaudible words before he vanished" I explained.**

"**How dare Mr Tiny do that to you? I am fuming. He will pay for this Sarah I swear it" Larten roared.**

"**No Larten I have a better idea. He thinks that the child will make us shunned by the clan and he said that you hate children and that you would leave me but supposing having a child does the opposite to us and the clan? We can play him at his own game and have our revenge that way" I suggested.**

"**You mean that we should be happy and we should celebrate this event? In other words rub his nose in it?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes exactly because we are stronger than him and nothing will come between us" I replied smiling. **

"**Very well Sarah if that is what you wish to do. I have always secretly wished to have a child but I gave up when I found out about vampires being barren. If this works it would make me so happy and it could not be to a better mate than you." Larten said.**

"**You mean that you do not mind me being pregnant?" I asked nervously.**

"**Not at all but it will not be pleasant. Pregnancy is horrible having watched my mother go through it twice before she died" Larten said as he felt my stomach. I looked at it and I saw a strange mark on it that had not been there before; it looked like a finger mark where Des Tiny had touched me. **

"**I am so scared Larten. What if it goes wrong? What if I die in labour?" I asked.**

"**You will not die because I will make sure that you are kept healthy. I will be there every step of the way" Larten said.**

**Then just as I was about to say something I felt sick and ran to the toilet.**

"**So it begins" I said when I returned.**

"**Yes nine months of mystery and sickness before you get stretched to your limit literally" Larten replied.**

"**I hate Des Tiny but this may turn out to be a strange blessing in disguise" I said as I got into bed.**

"**I agree. Anyway who knows what will happen?" Larten replied as he got into bed beside me.**

**I slept the day away and I dreamed about the clan and what they would say when we sent word to tell them of Des Tiny's trick. I was really scared but I knew that if my plan worked Des Tiny would be stopped in his tracks once more. I hated Des Tiny with a passion; I hoped that I would get the chance to kill him at some point and that would end all of our problems. **

**I woke up that night with stomach cramps and I felt like a reanimated corpse. I was very sick and I looked worse than what a reanimated corpse looks like; I was very, very pale and I had no energy to do anything. Everything I ate I threw up and I was generally run down and ill. If I had to put up with this for the next nine months I was going to go crazy.**

"**How are you Sarah?" Mr Tall asked me when I went to ask for some time off.**

"**I am feeling very ill and I have thrown up twice already" I said.**

"**Are you sick Sarah?" Mr Tall asked me.**

"**Not exactly Mr Tall. Des Tiny has made me pregnant with a half human half vampire" I explained.**

"**Well I guess that I should say congratulations but you are not enjoying it. Take some time off and rest because you look dreadful" Mr Tall replied.**

"**Thank you. I do not like this one bit. I cannot eat or drink anything because I just throw it up" I explained.**

"**Try blood mixed with water and make it warm" Mr Tall suggested.**

"**Ok I will do. It might settle my stomach down" I responded.**

"**It may help but if that fails try ginger or peppermint because that also helps with morning sickness" Mr Tall said.**

"**Ok then I will try it out. Thank you for the advice" I said as I left to go back to bed.**

**Soon the whole camp knew of my condition and they were all fussing over me. Some of the performers did not believe me at first. I soon had a bump though, it grew rapidly and that was undeniable proof. I was kind of excited but I was nervous too. I hated being sick but Mr Tall's advice paid off and it was not as bad. I did not have any scans or anything because I did not deem it to be necessary. **

**I knew that I would go to the mountain to give birth because it was what I wanted to do. I felt safe there and it felt right to give birth in the medical wing surrounded by the vampiresses of the clan, the chief medic and Larten. It was going to be hell but it would be worth it in the end just to see the look on Des Tiny's face when he saw the clan's excitement and Larten's joy because I was able to give him a child. **

**Three months into the pregnancy I was feeling better but I was still throwing up and I could not do anything because if I moved it hurt and my stomach was big which made it hard to move. Larten did not leave my side; he was always fetching and carrying stuff for me, he went hunting frequently and he guarded me like I had never seen before. I liked the attention but I hated being so big because I did not want stretch marks in addition to all of the scars that I had. **

**The time came to go to the mountain. I would not be able to walk it let alone flit to the top so Larten organised a carriage. He made a carriage and he bought two large horses off of a gypsy who was selling them to buy food for his family. **

**I sat in the carriage with the baggage and Larten drove the carriage right to the main entrance of the mountain. He had experience with carriages because when he was young it was a main mode of transport so he got a job driving them before he joined Seba. It was better than factory work anyway and it paid well. **

**I felt like Dracula's bride because the carriage was big and black, it was closed over and it was pulled by two eighteen hand stallions that were incredibly strong and wild but Larten was just as strong and he drove the carriage with a great care because of the cargo but he was fast and we arrived at the mountain in a few weeks rather than the months that it had taken previously. **

**By the time Larten had carried me into the Main Hall I was six months pregnant, large and cranky because I could not do anything and I was reliant on the other clan members to help me out. I was short tempered and I was always in a bad mood because the vampire hormones in me were raging out of control. I really hated this part of the pregnancy and I could not wait for it to be over.**

**I could not get up the stairs to our quarters so Larten had to carry me everywhere. To him I was light but a human could not have lifted me or supported me. I felt bad for him but what could I do? Des Tiny had made me this way and now I had to get on with it as best as I could.**

**At least I had stopped throwing up and I was able to eat well. The bump was huge; it looked like I had a beach ball in my belly. I suspected that I had more than one baby on the way but I would have to wait and see.**

**I was in the Halls of Sport watching the entertainment when I was approached by Seba who had made a full recovery from his fractured skull. I was glad to see that he was so well.**

"**Hello Larten, Sarah how are you?" Seba asked me.**

"**I am well thank you Seba. I want this to be over though I am getting bored of being so big and of no use to anyone here" I said.**

"**I can see your point there Sarah. I hope that Larten is helping you out" Seba replied.**

"**Oh Larten has been an angel. Did you see the carriage that he made? He made it to transport me here in safety. Larten has carried me everywhere because I cannot walk properly. You have trained him well Seba" I said and smiled.**

"**I am glad that Larten has been so attentive. I knew that when I met you for the first time you were different to the other vampiresses that Larten has been with. I could sense something special about you" Seba replied. **

"**I am so proud of you Sarah. You have endured this latest test with great strength and humility. I hope that this child will bring us closer together. It will be hard but I am sure that we will manage" Larten said.**

"**Well if I can get through this then maybe I should take the Trials of Death and become a General" I laughed.**

"**Just get through this birth first then we will discuss the Trials of Death" Larten instructed me.**

"**Ok Larten if that is what you want. I will of course follow your instructions but as the birth draws closer I am getting scared because I know what it entails. I hope that I will be able to get through it" I said nervously.**

"**You will be fine. I will not leave you until it is over and it may surprise you but I have delivered a child before; in fact I have delivered six children into the world" Larten said in response.**

"**So you would know what to do if complications arise?" I asked nervously.**

"**Yes. I had to deliver my sister's child and my mother's twins before I delivered a couple of others on the streets of London when Seba and I were travelling when I first became his assistant" Larten explained.**

"**Well I feel ok now. I feel certain that it will be ok if you are there helping me through this nightmare. Giving birth is for me my worst nightmare; I fear it more than vampaneze" I admitted.**

"**Well I never thought that a woman would be scared of giving birth but we all have our phobias" Larten said.**

"**I am starving. I want some soup and bread" I said.**

"**Are you trying to change the subject Sarah?" Larten asked me.**

"**Not at all I am just bloody hungry. Sort it for me would you?" I snapped.**

"**Alright, alright as you wish. I will not be long" Larten said as he disappeared into the kitchens to make my lunch. **

"**I see that you have Larten at your beck and call. I am surprised that he is so submissive. I have never seen him so willing to follow orders" Seba laughed.**

"**Well I am unable to make my own food and Larten loves me. He will do what I tell him if he knows what is good for him and if he does not then he will pay for it later" I replied.**

"**Fair enough then I will see you soon Sarah" Seba said as he left me to go and fight in the wrestling ring which proved entertaining for everybody who watched the match.**

**Larten returned soon after the match was over with my lunch and it was great. I had thick vegetable broth and plenty of bread to fill up on. I felt ok after I had eaten. I had been feeling weak before but I was ok now that I had eaten. I was still not enjoying my pregnancy though; being pregnant sucks!**

**Eventually a few weeks later when I was lying in bed I felt a sharp, stabbing pain in my stomach. I looked down and a whole load of fluid and blood gushed out. My waters had broken and it was time to give birth. **

"**Larten it is time, my waters have broken" I said. **

"**I can see that, just breathe like I told you to and stay calm. We will get through this" Larten said as he scooped me up and carried me to the medical wing which had been prepared. I was having contractions but they were not too frequent. I lay down in the medical bed and I tried to stay calm and breathe through the pain for it was intense. **

**I knew that I had to wait until I was dilated ten centimetres before I could begin to push. I was told to walk around but it was too much so I had to wait until the contractions were a few minutes apart until I could start to push my baby out. **

"**How are you feeling?" Larten asked me**

"**Weak and it hurts a lot. How do women do this Larten?" I asked.**

"**I have no idea. Des Tiny will pay for this trust me" Larten said as he helped me to sit up and get ready to push when the time came.**

**I had been in labour for a couple of hours at this point and by now all of the vampiresses had arrived to help out where they could. I was petrified and I was shaking with fear. The pain was the worst that I had ever felt and it was getting worse. My contractions were coming more frequently now and I got the urge to push but I did not want to push prematurely in case something went wrong. **

**After another four hours of contractions I was finally dilated enough to push and that was where the hard work would start. **

"**On the next contraction you can push. Push as hard as you can and breathe as it helps" The medic said as he examined me.**

"**OK I will do my best. Lucky I have vampiric strength to help me" I laughed.**

"**Yes but that will only help you so far. You have to do the work" The medic said as my contraction came.**

"**You can push now Sarah; push like your life depends upon it" The medic said.**

**So I pushed hard and it felt better but that was only the beginning I was in a lot of pain and it was intensifying.**

**My contractions were coming thick and fast and without mercy.**

"**Help me. I cannot do this without you" I said to Larten who was there helping me to breathe.**

"**You just have to push and there is nothing that I can do until the head appears" Larten said.**

"**Some help you are" I said as I pushed again.**

"**I am here; I am helping you to breathe and to keep calm. Those two things are vital" Larten replied. **

"**I can see the head Sarah. A couple more pushes should do it" The medic said.**

"**Alright. Let us do this thing and show Des Tiny what we vampires are made of" I said as I pushed again and screamed because it hurt so much.**

**Then it was all over. The baby came out with one final push and my ordeal was over. The cord was cut and the baby was handed to me. I had delivered a healthy baby girl that was half human and half vampire. I cradled her in my arms and she looked into my eyes, she had the same blue eyes that Larten had but she had black hair and she weighed in at seven pounds. **

"**Well done Sarah. You made it through labour and our daughter is really pretty. She has my eyes and she will be spoilt rotten" Larten said as he held the baby. **

"**I am scared that Des Tiny is going to do something bad. What if he wants the baby for some evil plan?" I asked.**

"**Des Tiny will die before he harms you or our daughter. What I want to know is why he would grant us a child when he has refused so many other couples" Larten said.**

"**Maybe he thought that it would destroy the clan through jealousy because we have what they wanted" I answered.**

"**Possibly but we will have to wait and see. The most pressing issue now is a name for our little one" Larten replied.**

"**Well how about naming her Arra in honour of Arra?" I suggested**

"**No that will be expected by everybody. Name her something else" Larten said.**

"**OK well how about Malora?" I suggested.**

"**Again that is a name from my past. I want my daughter to have a name that is new and not named after anyone" Larten replied.**

"**OK well how about Jiana?" I asked.**

"**That is a decent name. It will do quite nicely; so our daughter is now Jiana Crepsley unless you want her to have your old last name?" Larten asked. **

"**No Jiana Crepsley sounds perfect to me. We will have to present her to the clan now" I said.**

"**Of course we will present her to the clan as soon as you have healed up" Larten said. **

"**Very well, I need to rest now so can you take Jiana and look after her whilst I sleep? She will need to be fed at some point when she wakes up. Do we give her milk or blood?" I asked.**

"**I assume milk until she is a bit bigger or a mix of the two. Seba will know so I will ask him when I see him" **

"**Oh alright I will see you two later when I am feeling a bit better. The birth has sapped all of my energy Larten I am very weak" I said as I lay back in the bed and tried to sleep.**

"**I will fix you some food. That will get your strength back but now sleep is the best thing" Larten said as he left with our tiny bundle wrapped in one of his many cloaks. **

"**I love you Larten. I will see you later." I called out.**

"**We love you too" Larten said as he vanished.**

**Larten walked into the halls to get my food sorted out and the whole clan surrounded him to get a glimpse of Jiana. Larten held Jiana up on top of the Bars so that the whole clan could see the baby. Larten seemed to be really proud and of course everyone wanted to hold her but Larten was very selective about that. Seba, Gavnur and the Princes got the first hold and then the rest of the clan waited and hoped that Larten would pick them to hold his daughter. **

**I was still in the medical wing recovering. I was exhausted and I had been badly torn where the baby's head had come out so I had to be stitched up. I hoped against hope that I would not get an infection because if I did then it could lead to blood poisoning and that would kill me. **

**As luck would have it Larten appeared with a big pot full of soup and plenty of bread. I got it in me and I felt a bit better then but I could not move without help where I was so stiff and sore.**

"**Thank you for the soup. I have one major problem though and that is that I will not be able to perform at the Cirque Du Freak or mate with you for ages because I need to heal up. I am scared that you will get bored and find someone else to mate with until I am back to top condition" I said sadly.**

"**If you think that about me Sarah then you do not know me very well at all. I learnt from the last time and it was a mistake that will not be repeated" Larten assured me.**

"**We need a lot of baby supplies Larten. We need a cot, clothing and food. We need nappies too" I said.**

"**I will sort it Sarah. I know a little about raising children. Gavnur Purl would not be here now if I had not of found him and saved him. He was a baby named by Des Tiny and I remember how I killed a polar bear and wore its skin to survive" Larten said.**

"**Is there nothing that you cannot do? It seems that you have done so much in your life and now you have a baby to look after. Did you ever imagine when you were growing up that you would one day be a vampire with a blessed mate and a daughter?" I asked.**

"**Certainly not but Seba saved me. Now I cannot imagine my life any other way my dear. Our baby is probably the most precious gift that I have ever received even though it is strange of Des Tiny to grant it to us I am not complaining" Larten said.**

"**Jiana is pretty cute. She may become the first vampire princess you never know with these things" I said hopefully.**

"**I am sure that she will have no shortage of mates either when she is old enough to mate" Larten said.**

"**Well I have standards. Jiana will not mate with anybody unworthy but back to the matter at hand it is good that you have a carriage as it is foul weather outside. We need the baby supplies soon because Jiana cannot be wrapped up in your cloak the whole time" I said as I held my daughter.**

"**She is pretty quiet Sarah. She has not cried at all" Larten said.**

"**Oh charna's guts Larten, Jiana is not breathing!" I screamed as I looked down at my lifeless daughter.**

"**Get the medic over here immediately" Larten said as he began to perform chest compressions.**

**The medic came running over and he immediately began work to try and save our daughter.**

**After an hour the medic came back over and he was in tears.**

"**I could do nothing. Jiana has died of suspected cot death and there is nothing that I could have done to save her" The medic said.**

"**You mean that my daughter is dead after two nights of life?" I said.**

"**I am afraid so. Cot death is what we call it when a baby dies for no reason. It is rare but it happens" The medic said.**

**I said nothing I just cried and cried.**

"**Des Tiny will pay for this Sarah. I guarantee it" Larten said when he had stopped crying. We were both inconsolable. I just looked at my dead daughter and cried more than ever. **

"**I guess that we should tell the clan Larten for they are all expecting you to present Jiana to them" I said when I could speak again.**

"**Yes I will sort it but right now you need to rest, I will bring our mourning bands down so that people will know" Larten said as he left.**

**I lay back in my bed and tried to sleep but I was so upset and angry. I could not believe that my daughter was dead and after everything I had been through it was another disaster in a long line of disasters.**

**I blamed Des Tiny for the whole thing and I was totally disgusted with him. I swore my revenge on him as soon as I was well enough to move.**

"**Evening Larten how is your little bundle of joy?" Seba asked when Larten when they passed in the corridors.**

"**Oh Seba Jiana is dead. The medic said it was cot death and there was nothing that we could do" Larten said**

"**I am so sorry. I had no idea you have my condolences, you both do" Seba said.**

"**Please do not mention it to anyone Seba for I will tell the clan in due course" Larten said.**

"**Very well if that is your wish, I will go and get my mourning band" Seba said and he vanished.**

**Soon enough the whole clan had gathered together in the Princes Dome to hold a meeting and that is when Larten stood up and said;**

"**Before the meeting begins I have to tell you that my daughter Jiana has died of cot death. I request that you all wear your mourning bands and if anybody sees Des Tiny kill him on sight. Sarah and I are absolutely gutted and as you can imagine we will be withdrawing from the clan formally to mourn in private" Larten said.**

**To this news the clan all made the deaths touch symbol in unison and said;**

"**Jiana Crepsley even in death may you be triumphant" **

**Larten then left the Princes Dome and he came back to see me. I was moved into a private ward where Darryl had been when he was mourning Arra. **

"**The clan knows of our tragedy and I have said that we will be formally withdrawing from the clan to mourn in private as is the vampire way" Larten explained.**

"**OK. I guess that we will have to arrange a funeral at some point and although it is a horrible task it must be done" I said.**

"**I agree but we should mourn whilst our baby lies in state so that the clan can say goodbye" Larten said.**

**I put my mourning band on and as I was shaking so much I could not do it properly so Larten tied it around my arm and then we both sat in my room and grieved. I was so shocked and upset but I knew that Jiana was in Paradise with Arra so I knew that she was in safe hands. I knew that Arra would not let Jiana's spirit end up in the Lake of Souls or in one of Des Tiny's little people. **

**Larten sat with me and he would not leave my side. I knew that without him I would not have the strength to continue living as a clan member because Larten was my rock and the only person who I could turn to in a crisis. I cried a lot but that was to be expected and some nights I just sat up and silent tears ran down my cheeks like tiny raindrops. **

**A few nights later we arranged the funeral and although it was horrible it had to be done and we made sure that Jiana had the best funeral that we could arrange. I hated it but I knew that unless Jiana's body was burned she could not stay in Paradise or so our beliefs said. **

**I said special prayers and I sang a song of mourning which gave thanks and asked the vampire gods to accept her spirit and to watch over her until we joined her in Paradise. **

**Afterwards we all retired to one of the halls and we ate and drank a lot. I was still pretty weak but I ate what I could and I tried to speak to as many clan members as I could.**

**I returned to my room in the medical wing and I slept. I had a dream that Arra was holding Jiana and smiling like she was happy and then in my dream Arra was spinning Jiana around and then Jiana grew up a bit and she was learning to duel. Then I woke up and told Larten about it. **

"**I hope that Jiana is OK in Paradise. I wonder what it is like up there or wherever it is" Larten mused.**

"**I hope that she is resting in peace and that her spirit is floating around in endless freedom and that Arra's spirit is there guiding her" I said as I tried hard not to cry. Thinking about it was upsetting but I knew that we would be reunited someday.**


	21. Des Tiny's Visit

**Chapter 21 Des Tiny's visit**

**About six weeks after the tragic loss of my child I was walking around the halls looking for something to do when I noticed that none other than Des Tiny was in the halls too. I saw him heading towards the Princes Dome so I followed him there for I had to get revenge on him.**

**We entered the Princes Dome one after the other. I was surprised that Des Tiny had not noticed me following him (he never was very observant!) **

"**How can we help you Mr Tiny?" Prince Arrow asked.**

"**I have come to visit my child. I understand that I have a daughter somewhere" Mr Tiny said.**

"**Correction the child that you granted to Larten and I; our child I may add for Jiana was not yours is dead. Jiana died after two nights of life of cot death about six weeks ago so you are too late" I cried out in frustration.**

"**Oh well that was not expected. I am sorry for you both" Des Tiny replied.**

"**Well thanks for apologising and now you die!" I yelled and I struck out with my long sword aiming for Des Tiny's heart or chest area in revenge. I was not really thinking straight but I made contact with Des Tiny and my sword went right through his chest. I had taken Des Tiny by surprise and with my superior speed he had no chance against me. **

**Des Tiny fell to the ground and he was bleeding badly. I pulled my sword out of his chest and I sliced his head off with a single stroke.**

"**We have seen enough of this Sarah!" Prince Vancha bellowed over the top of the commotion which had now started taking place. **

"**Yes Sire" I said as I sheathed my long sword and wiped the blood off of my hands and face from where it had splattered everywhere. **

"**What possessed you to kill Mr Tiny?" Prince Arrow asked when the commotion had died down. **

"**It was pure revenge for Jiana's death and for putting this clan through hell for these past two hundred years" I explained.**

"**I can see that but why here? Why now? Why in front of us?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I saw my chance and I took it. I knew and you all knew that it had to be done and by doing it here in front of you it enabled you to see my superior fighting skills" I continued.**

"**That is true but you know the rules about having weapons in here. Why did the guards not take your long sword off of you?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Well there are no guards. We walked straight in here and Des Tiny did not see me. I will get this mess cleaned up" I said and I started to clean up the blood and I moved the body to the Hall of Death. It did not take long to clean up because I had made a good, clean kill and it was quick as I had been trained well; not many could stand against me in a fight. I had killed so many vampaneze and vampets on the battlefield that it was second nature to kill their creator for all the hell and trouble that he had caused throughout time. **

**The clan found it hard to believe when I told them that Des Tiny was dead and buried and they could not have been more pleased with the news. No Des Tiny meant no apocalypse and no more vampaneze, no more Lake of Souls and no more Little People.**

**Little People were made out of lost souls that Des Tiny captured and altered in some kind of primordial soup before they changed shape and lost their memories of who they were before they became a little person. The only exception to this was Harkat Mulds who was Kurda Smalt before he got changed and put back in time to help Darren in his Trials of Death. Darren failed but he redeemed himself and then he became a Prince as it was the only way that Darren could survive after failing the Trials because Princes could not be executed. **

**I knew that I would have to take my Trials of Death eventually because it was the only thing that I had not done since joining the clan all that time ago. I knew that Larten did not wish me to take the Trials but it was not that bad considering that I had survived abduction by the vampaneze, a fierce battle and child birth. I was looking forward to being formally recognised by the clan for passing the Trials and not just because I was Larten Crepsley's blessed mate.**


	22. The Trials of Death

**Chapter 22 the Trials of Death**

**Several months went by and I was now ready to face the Trials of Death. I had recovered from the birth and I was out of mourning for the loss of my only child. I never quite got over the fact that my daughter died and I knew that I would never have another but I could not dwell on the past I had to look ahead to the future and more pressingly-my trials. **

**I had done a lot of intense training to prepare my body and mind for the challenge that lay ahead of me. I knew that the five trials would be picked at random from a bag of numbered stones. The trials of death ranged from fighting in the ring to climbing up a mountain and retrieving an object. **

**I was petrified but I did not let it show on my face as I entered the Princes Dome to pick my first Trial of Death and believe me when I say that the Trials of Death were aptly named. **

"**Sarah you have come before us to pick out your first Trial. I also understand that you have decided to take advantage of the period of preparation" Prince Vancha announced.**

"**That is correct; I believe that now is my time to take the Trials and prove myself to all of you by passing all five trials without hesitation" I replied as I stuck my hand in the bag and pulled out a small black stone with the number "28" carved into it. **

"**Trial 28 General's Square" Prince Vancha announced.**

**There was murmuring from the crowd that had gathered. I looked around me and then I said;**

"**OK that sounds fine to me so bring it on Sire" **

"**Your first trial will take place in three night's time when you have prepared. You will face Gavnur Purl on General's Square" Prince Vancha said and then I left to begin preparing for my first trial. **

**I had absolutely no idea what General's Square was. It sounded like a dance routine and facing Gavnur Purl was going to be hard because he was my blessed mate's best friend. I hoped and prayed that I would not have to kill him because I could not do that. **

**I was lucky when I saw what General's Square was. It was two square platforms placed opposite each other but off of the ground. The object was to stand on one platform and duel with a sword or a staff until one of you fell off there was no killing involved. It was similar to duelling on the Bars which was a relief because I knew that this Trial would not be too hard for me. **

**I vaulted onto the platform, I started spinning around and practicing my basic strikes and blocks because I had not been on the Bars for a while I was rusty and the square platform was even harder to move on because it was a lot smaller than the Bars and in addition it wobbled which made it harder to balance upon. **

**I basically had to duel Gavnur and knock him off within the time limit without falling off or getting knocked off as that was a failure and so too was stepping across to the other platform during the duel and running out of time because you only got thirty five minutes to knock your opponent off. **

**I started training with Larten so that I could get the hang of it. Larten did not go easy on me and he sent me to the ground with a couple of good strikes that I had not seen before but I leapt straight back up and started again. Eventually I was able to knock Larten off but because we were so far apart it made it harder to get hits in and it made it harder to dodge hits also. The trick was to jump up rather than to dodge a hit by blocking it. The platform wobbled lots but because I was quite light it supported my weight rather than collapsing when I stepped onto it and jumped up and down on it whilst I was dodging blows that could have killed a human. I picked it up quickly but the three days of preparation were soon over. I had to wear my duel outfit but I also had to be escorted to my Trial by a Prince in a robe that signified that I was about to take on a Trial of Death. The clan members were on two sides and they were all cheering for me and making the death's touch symbol at me as it was tradition. I also heard people shouting advice at me but it was confusing so I just took a moment to focus myself and my mind before I hopped up onto the platform where Gavnur was waiting for me on the opposite platform. **

**Larten had walked by my side when I was approaching the platform, he held onto my waist closely as we walked and I was quite nervous but with Larten there I felt OK. **

**When I was on the platform I was passed my weapon of choice and I was allowed to make a speech as it was traditional before my Trial started and this is what I said; **

"**Vampires of the clan I have come before you to face my first Trial of Death. I hope that I pass and before I begin my duel I want to say that I have taken advantage of the period of preparation and I hope that it has paid off. Larten I love you and I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your training and advice for without you I would not stand a chance of passing the Trials of Death" I removed my rings before I started because when I had them on they got in the way of my staff. I also removed my necklaces and my bracelet in case they got broken. I passed them down to Larten who held on to them for me until the Trial was over.**

"**Duellists begin" Vanez Blaine the referee said and I began my Trial. Gavnur was not going to take it easy on me and he came at me with all of his skills. I dodged a couple of blows and I returned them. The platform was wobbling a lot so I had to gain my balance and keep it. I got in a couple of return blows but they were not that powerful and all the while the time was ticking. I was going to have to take a risk to win and pull off a very dangerous set of moves but I had no other option. **

**I took a deep breath in and I leapt up into the air as high as I could. I brought my legs up and I started a spin to build up speed so that I could hover in the air; I was trying to hover over Gavnur's head so that I could bring my staff down upon it and make a direct hit that would finish Gavnur off for good. **

**It was hard because I had to hover and stay up high enough so that I had time to land back on my own platform after making my lethal strike. **

**Gavnur had never seen my acrobatic skills so I had the advantage over him but it was dangerous. If I mistimed the move I would go off balance and fall as my momentum would not be enough to hold me in the air long enough to pull off my move and land back on my own platform. I gave it a jolly good go, I got the momentum up and managed to hover over Gavnur, I brought my staff down on Gavnur's head but he somehow blocked my first strike and that threw me off balance but I was able to land back on my platform ready to try something else but time was running out for me so I had to think and think fast. **

**I tried to side swipe Gavnur but he blocked my move and again I had to think of something else. I was starting to panic and I knew that if I panicked then I would lose my focus and fail so I had to take a bit of time to breathe and re-focus my mind and I had to think to myself "What would Arra do?". It was hard because Gavnur kept coming at me; what was worse was that had I been upon the Bars I would have won by now which was frustrating for me. This was a Trial of Death however and it was not meant to be easy. **

**I did my very best and I tried to remember what Larten had taught me but my mind went blank and I just could not think. I did something risky but if it worked then it would be worth it but if it failed then I would fail also. **

**I closed my eyes and I began to clear my mind and meditate. I was trying to link to Larten so that I could ask him what to do. I was trying desperately to remember the vicious moves that Larten had performed that sent me crashing to the ground when we were training. **

"**Larten hear me, Larten help me please" I thought to myself and I hoped that he would pick up on my vibes. **

"**Sarah I cannot help you it is against the rules of the Trials" I heard Larten say back to me.**

"**Larten I beg you. Do you want me to fail and get executed?" I thought to Larten.**

"**Of course not; I love you. Alright, alright jump up in the air and get your momentum up but instead of going for Gavnur's head aim for his heart and make a lightning quick jab thereby knocking him off balance. Then you can finish him off" Larten said to me over our mental link.**

"**OK Larten. Thank you so, so much" I said in reply then I pulled off Larten's suggestion and with two quick moves Gavnur was sent to the floor and I stood victorious with two minutes to spare on the clock.**

"**That was a close call. You nearly ran out of time Sarah. What made it better was that you had your eyes shut" Vanez said after the Trial was over. **

"**I had to shut my eyes and focus. It was the only way that I could think clearly because my mind went totally blank" I explained.**

"**Well at least you passed your first Trial" Vanez said.**

"**Yes Vanez I did pass my first Trial of Death, one down and four to go eh?" I laughed as I downed a mug of strong, dark ale. **

"**Gavnur is OK. He is getting patched up but he will be fine because he landed well but that could have been a lot worse for him if you had really gone in for the kill as it were. Gavnur will be bruised from your strikes and jabs however" **

"**Well the point is that I passed and now I get to rest for a night before I draw my next Trial and then I get three nights to prepare which is even better" I said.**

"**Just make sure that you make the most of what time you have Sarah" Vanez said as we downed yet another pint of strong, dark ale each. **

**I rushed off to find Larten after I had quenched my thirst. I found him in our quarters, he was getting ready to go out hunting but I had other ideas on my mind.**

"**Hi Larten I have been looking for you. Thank you for helping me to pass my first Trial" I said.**

"**That is OK but please do not rely upon me to do that again. If we get caught it means death for us both but I could not stand there and watch you die or watch you fail even if you were fighting my best friend up there" Larten replied in his usual monotone voice. **

"**Very well Larten I will not ask you to help me out again if I pass I pass if I fail I fail. Can I have my jewels back now?" I asked.**

"**But of course" Larten said as he handed back my rings, necklaces and my bracelet.**

"**I feel naked without my rings and crest on Larten" I said as I put my jewels back on again. **

"**Well you have not removed your bracelet or rings since I gave them to you and you have had that necklace for as long as I have known you and that other one that you keep as a trophy of your victory over the vampaneze is pretty cool too" Larten said.**

"**You mean George and Steve's old crests?" I asked.**

"**Yes they show that you are not only devious and cunning but very skilled and you would have made a good spy if you had not wanted to become a vet before you met me" Larten replied.**

"**I can see that but we never have to worry about vampaneze or Des Tiny ever again do we?" I laughed as Larten left me for his hunting trip. **

"**No we do not have to worry about either of those things. I will see you later unless you have other plans?" Larten asked.**

"**I have no plans at all so I will see you later but right now I need a wash and a rest after my first Trial; it took a lot of energy as you saw" I responded.**

"**Bye then my beloved. I will bring you something back from the hunt, then later I will sort out a training schedule for you and if you are up for it we can spend some time together just you and me" Larten said before he kissed me and vanished into the night. **

**I returned to my room, picked up my wash bag and headed to the waterfalls where I had to wash away the sweat and the dried blood off of my body. The icy water would also help my muscles by freezing them and as a result of being so cold it would help to reduce the swelling that I had gotten from taking Gavnur's strikes rather than dodging them and losing my balance.**

**I jumped straight under the waterfall and as I had suspected it was bloody cold; I felt like I was outside in the depths of winter with no coat on. When my body adjusted to the cold I was fine and I was able to wash. When I had finished I dried myself off and returned to my quarters. **

**I had to rest before Larten returned from his hunt. I was hungry but I had to wait and see what Larten was bringing back for me to cook up for my lunch. **

**When Larten returned he had brought us a pair of partridges and a couple of hares that would make a great pie so I made some pastry and I cut the breasts off of the partridges before I jointed the hares and added them to the pie mix.**

**It would take a while to cook so that left Larten plenty of time to sort out my training schedule ready for my next four Trials of Death. **

**Larten told me what to put on it and I wrote it out and stuck it to my wall so that I could refer to it whenever I needed to. The schedule was set out like a timetable with hours on one side and the activity on the other side. I had things like training time for next trial, hunting time, feeding time, private time, free time ETC written on it. It was easy to follow and it made sense. **

**After we had eaten our game pie we had some time to ourselves which was great. I wanted to spend some real time with Larten because we had not spent any time together for ages and we had a lot of catching up to do. **

"**Do you feel like mating?" Larten asked me. I was still aching but I needed something to sort my body out and we had not done it for so long that I felt like we were growing apart.**

"**Yes Larten if you want to mate then that is OK by me as we have not been together for ages and I have forgotten what it feels like" I said in reply. **

"**How could that be possible Sarah? I always try and make our time together unforgettable. Am I not satisfying you anymore?" Larten asked me.**

"**No it is just the fact that I have missed you so much and we have grown apart slightly in my opinion because we have not been alone together for so long like this. I am afraid that I will not be up to my usual standard because I am out of practice my love" I replied looking slightly intimidated.**

"**I could take it gentle if you want me to but you may not get as much sensation as what you are used to" Larten explained.**

"**I think that I will be OK but I am scared that it may hurt as it has been so long and I may a bit sore still from where I have given birth and been stitched up" I said with a worried look on my face.**

"**I admit that it has been so long since I have been with a woman who has given birth that I cannot remember if it hurt her or not but if it does then it probably will not last long and besides the rest of the sensation that you receive from me will be pure pleasure my dear if I do my job properly" Larten said as he looked at me in a way that made me get all funny and tingly inside.**

**My spine was buzzing with this pin and needles sensation and I knew then that Larten was undressing me with his eyes. He did not have to say anything for I knew all too well what was about to take place. **

**I removed my clothing and then I did something that I had not done before. I threw my weight forward and jumped with such speed that Larten was knocked to the ground taking me with him. I landed on top of Larten ready to do to him what he normally did to me which was to rip off what clothing was in the way, throw it down and then we would start to play with each other and tease each other until one of us got up and moved to our bed where the actual magic would happen as it were. **

**This night in particular was better than most nights that I had experienced and at the end of it I felt great and I felt like we had reaffirmed our bond because our ties to each other had been getting weak but now they were stronger than ever.**

"**When we were together last night it was one of the most exhilarating nights of my life. I have missed that side of things for so long. I hope that I was good enough" I said as I put some clean clothes on.**

"**You were fine. I have no complaints but you must try and not be so vocal because it is not fair on our neighbours but if I am that good then it makes me feel proud that I can make you be that vocal" Larten replied as he adjusted his cloak; it did not look right because I had ripped it off of him and it had a hole in it. **

**I was quite nervous about picking my second Trial of Death. I knew that it would probably be a nasty one knowing my luck and when I put my hand into the bag to pull out the numbered stone I uttered a silent plea to the Vampire Gods to be merciful.**

"**Number sixty which is Wrestle to the Death" Prince Vancha said and went even paler than what I already had been before I picked out the Trial.**

"**The Vampire Gods have given you a nasty Trial. Is there nothing that we can do?" Larten pleaded with Vancha when he heard the news.**

"**There is nothing to be done. Chosen Trials cannot be changed" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**It is fine Larten. I will train harder and if I am destined for Paradise then so be it" I replied. Then I asked "What does this Trial involve?" **

"**You must wrestle a General in the ring until one of you dies. It is as simple as that" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right I see now why you did not want me to take this Trial. Who am I facing Larten? I asked.**

"**I do not know my love a name will be picked out at random. It is difficult because we cannot train you to face somebody if we do not know who it is. You will not know any of their weaknesses and you are likely to die" Larten said.**

"**Oh I understand. Could your name be picked out Larten?" I asked nervously.**

"**In theory yes but the Princes would not be so cruel as to do that to us" Larten replied.**

"**So the Princes choose my opponent then? Maybe you could have a word with Darren and influence him in some way" I suggested.**

"**Do not be so silly. That is against the rules Sarah." Larten chastised me.**

"**I know that Larten I was only joking. I know that you cannot help me in that sense but you can help me to practice my wrestling skills and my hand to hand combat. I need to learn a few good blocking moves so that I do not get beaten to a pulp" I said. **

"**Wrestling is not about blocking it is about getting on top of your opponent and staying on top of them. You win by pinning them down so that they cannot move normally but this is a fight to the death. You must get on top of your opponent and either stab them with your one permitted weapon or strangle them if you choose not to slit their throat first" Larten explained.**

"**Let me guess that I will be covered in bruises and blood again if I do not die and if I get too injured then how the hell will I pass my other three Trials?" I asked with a scared expression on my face.**

"**Do not worry about it. I will do my utmost to prepare you but in order to do so I am going to have to get rough so that you learn how to take down an opponent who is twice your size and double your body weight if not more" Larten said. **

"**Oh right I understand. Do as you will to me because I trust you one hundred per cent" I replied with a worried and nervous smile. **

"**Very well Sarah. We will start training later on tonight but now on your schedule it says that it is time for feeding if you are thirsty?" Larten enquired. **

"**You know me Larten. I have always had a high blood lust and I am dying to feed. I think that my time with the vampaneze made it worse because I got used to draining the humans that I fed from rather than just taking a small quantity to satisfy my hunger" I replied as I put my travelling cloak on.**

"**Let us go then my love if you need to feed. I am OK but you need all the strength that you can get especially now that you are facing a horrible Trial" Larten said as we left our quarters and exited the mountain for the nearest village where we would have our fill of blood before returning to the mountain to begin training for my next Trial.**

**We reached the village and we broke into a house that had two people sleeping in it. They were obviously quite poor because the house was devoid of furniture and they were on the floor asleep when we fed from them. I took a fair amount and Larten had to remind me not to drink too much but I needed it as I had not fed for a while due to my hectic training schedule. **

"**I knew that I needed to feed. It has been a while since I last made a direct feed. I am glad that you pulled me off before I drank too much blood because you know what I get like" I said when we had finished.**

"**That I do know and that is why you must feed regularly so that you do not get into a state like this again. You are lucky that I know when to stop feeding" Larten replied. **

"**That is true. Have you got a handkerchief or a cloth that I can wipe my mouth with?" I asked.**

"**Here, you did make quite a mess when I pulled you off. It is not like you but again you have not fed directly for ages" Larten said as he handed me his handkerchief. I wiped my mouth and hands because I was covered in blood and it was quite a mess. I had to change my clothing too from where the blood had spurted everywhere. **

"**Thank you. We should return to the mountain now. I need to begin training" I said assertively.**

"**Yes that is true. Let us go and begin your training" Larten replied as I handed back his now blood stained handkerchief.**

**We arrived back at the mountain and after I had changed my clothes we started to train. I was useless to start with and many times Larten pinned me down and totally immobilised me. It was useless as he always drew his dagger.**

"**You are dead. If you cannot stop me from pinning you down then how are you going to stop your opponent?" Larten said to me as he let me up.**

"**I like it when you pin me down though Larten. I get hot when I am underneath you" I said.**

"**Be that as it may we must put our other feelings and urges aside for the sake of your life. Now do it again and this time try and roll me over" Larten said as we started wrestling in the ring again. I was exhausted and sweating but eventually I learned when to move to get the advantage. I ended up on top of Larten with his own dagger up to his throat.**

"**Well done my love. You have actually pinned me down. If I move you would surely kill me. I am glad that I am only training you my blessed mate. I could not bear to do this for real" Larten said as I sheathed his dagger and helped him up. **

"**You have to admit that I learn pretty fast my love. I train for hours and I pray that it will be enough to survive. When you train me I have the advantage because I know that you would never hurt me and because we mate I have got used to how your body moves and how it works. I use that knowledge to my advantage" I said after our training session was over.**

"**You learn fast but your moves are sloppy. You must learn to control your strikes; it is not all about speed it is about accuracy. You took me down but it was not powerful enough and if it was a real fight I could have finished you off way before that point but of course I could never do that to you my dear" Larten replied.**

"**I know but maybe you should have a real fight with someone so that I can watch and learn how it is done" I suggested.**

"**Yes that is a good idea. I think that it could be arranged" Larten replied. **

"**That is good. If I watch a proper match then I can see what you mean because this is a major challenge for me" I said in response.**

"**I will challenge Vanez to a match and I will explain to him what is going on so that he can show you a few things. Before Vanez lost his eye in a tussle with a lion he was the wrestling ring champion. He is an ideal person to show you a few things under my supervision of course" Larten said sternly in his teaching voice which was not a bit like his normal voice. **

"**Very well if you think that it will help me then submit your challenge" I said interested because I had never seen Larten in the wrestling ring. **

"**Your Trial is tomorrow evening so it will have to be tonight as tonight is your last night to train. You will have very little time tomorrow" Larten said as we left our deserted training hall and headed to the Halls of Sport. **

**I was kind of nervous about facing my second Trial but I had no choice but now I had to clear my mind and focus on the visual training aid that Larten had prepared for me.**

"**Vanez can I ask you a favour?" Larten asked him when he had finished refereeing a drawn out duel that I would have finished in half the time. **

"**Of course my friend what is it?" Vanez replied.**

"**I need you and I to wrestle in the wrestling ring and give Sarah a few pointers before her Trial tomorrow. I think a visual demonstration will help her" Larten said.**

"**Of course I can do that but I won't take it easy on you Larten. You know me" Vanez laughed as he stepped into the ring without his referee robes on. He only wore his trousers as he said that his clothing would restrict his movement. **

"**I do not expect you to take it easy Vanez. I can take whatever you throw at me and then pay it back double. However I do want you to stop at certain points so that you can explain to Sarah what you are doing as it meant to be part of her training" Larten instructed as he shed his own clothing and also stepped into the ring. **

"**Sarah watch closely as you may pick up a few things before I start explaining it to you" Vanez instructed.**

"**You have my undivided attention" I replied as I sat down in a chair next to the ring and prepared to learn from the demonstration.**

**Then the wrestling match started and I soon saw how tough my Trial was going to be. Larten went all out and Vanez did that also. It was entertaining to watch but every so often they would stop and explain to me the move sequence that had just been performed before I had a go at doing it. **

"**Not bad Sarah, you are getting it now" Vanez said to me as I tried out an advanced move on him. **

"**Sarah you are doing well but remember your earlier training as you will need all of it to pass this Trial" Larten reminded me when I forgot to block a strike and took a hit.**

**After five hours of intense training I was exhausted and yet again I was covered in bruises but they would heal up. I felt more confident about my Trial now though but I still had no idea who I would be facing.**

**I had a wash and I went to bed as I was shattered. I could barely stand up I was so tired but I knew that I had done everything that I could to pass my Trial and it was now in the hands of the Vampire Gods as to whether I passed or failed. **

**I collapsed on my bed and I must have fallen asleep really quickly. I could not even remember Larten coming in I was that tired. I woke up sometime near to sunset with Larten's cloak covering me and I remembered that tonight was my big Trial night. **

**I hurriedly got dressed and scoffed down my breakfast as I wanted to get in some last minute training before it was time to find out who I would have to kill in order to survive and pass my second Trial.**

**I was absolutely bricking it, I nearly threw up my breakfast but I kept it down as it could have been my last ever meal. I went to the ring and I started practicing my sword craft as that was my weapon of choice. I practiced all manner of blocks and strikes until I could hear Generals arriving to watch my Trial. **

**I exited the ring and I waited for everybody to arrive but I kept my sword unsheathed as it had to be inspected before the Trial started as were the rules. **

"**Sarah you are about to begin your Trial but first we must inspect your sword and then we will tell you who you are wrestling against" Prince Arrow said as he was initiating the Trial tonight.**

**I handed over my sword. It was made of silver with a double edged blade and it was engraved with my name, my crest and my initials as it had been a gift from my beloved Larten for the Trial. On the other side it was engraved with the words;**

"**I hope that this sword serves its purpose. May the luck of the vampires be with you tonight and forever more my love" Then it had Larten's own crest and initials on it.**

"**This sword is fine. I like the engraving upon it and I hope that it also serves its purpose" Prince Vancha said.**

"**Thank you Sire I will join you in a barrel of ale afterwards" I said.**

"**Very well but you have to survive first" Prince Vancha remarked.**

"**Oh I will survive. I am determined to do this for the clan and for myself" I replied.**

"**I admire your spirit Sarah but now you must enter the ring" Prince Vancha said and I entered the ring.**

"**Sarah tonight for your Trial you will be facing Darryl Stevenson" Prince Arrow announced and I looked around to see him walking towards me.**

**I had to kill Arra's widowed mate who I had helped and who I had gotten to know very well over the years. **

"**Hello Darryl. I am so sorry for this if it had been anybody else but you I would have been happier as it is we must fight to the death" I said glumly.**

"**Yes but it is not all bad. I will be reunited with Arra if you win and if I win you will be reunited with your daughter; either way one of us will enter Paradise by the end of this night" Darryl replied.**

"**If you do win please strike true and I will promise you the same because suffering will not do anybody any good" I said.**

"**I agree whichever one of us wins will make a quick, clean kill. A kill with honour as it were" Darryl replied.**

"**Agreed" I said and we shook on it.**

"**Wrestlers take your positions" Prince Arrow said and we stood at either end of the ring. **

"**I love you Larten. If I die tonight please do what we discussed yesterday and thank you for my sword" I said.**

"**You are welcome my love. Just remember to focus and do not panic for you have been well trained and I hate to say it but you have the upper hand in this fight" Larten said as he held me tightly and kissed me in public which is something he never did but on this occasion it was acceptable. I knew that it could be the last time that we would be together so I made the most of it. **

**Eventually Larten stopped kissing me and he exited the ring and then it was down to me.**

"**Begin" Prince Arrow said and then the wrestling match started. Darryl pounced on me but I ducked down and threw him off with ease. He came at me again and I blocked his attack before we started going for it on the floor. **

**We rolled over and over punching and scratching, kicking and biting each other until we were pulled apart by the referee. I held onto my sword for dear life and then our sword play begun except Darryl had a dagger that was a lot smaller and shorter than my sword.**

**I was quite good at fencing and it came in handy but the match was not over yet. I got a few good strikes in and Darryl was bleeding from a few gashes that I had given him. I was bleeding too from scratches on my face and a wound on my back but my front was fine thanks to my armour that I had chosen to wear.**

**The match dragged on and several times we went down on the ground and beat each other to a pulp but eventually Darryl dropped his dagger, I picked it up and threw it out of the ring as he was not allowed to retrieve a weapon that was not in the ring. **

**We really went for it at the end of the match and when my chance came I took it. Darryl tried to pounce on me again; he landed on my back so I slammed him down to the ground and rolled over. I managed to pin him down and then I sliced his throat open and before he could react he bled to death making me victorious.**

"**Even in death may you be triumphant Darryl" I said as I exited the ring.**

**I stood up covered in Darryl's and my own blood but I had passed and the crowd loved it. I was so tired and all I can remember is that Larten held me up and spun me around before I headed to the medical wing to be patched up for the sixth time. I had to have stitches and bandages applied but I was OK and that meant that I could heal up then take the next Trial.**

"**Sarah you were phenomenal. I have never seen anybody fight like that. That last move you did was really cool; the way you slammed Darryl down and then sliced his throat open was just amazing. I have never seen a vampiress move with such speed and skill" Prince Darren said when he came to see me in the medical wing.**

"**Thank you Sire I did do pretty well but I wish that I could have made a less messy kill" I said.**

"**Vanez was not happy. It will take ages to clean up afterwards but you are alive and now you get a break before you have to pick out your next Trial" Prince Darren replied.**

"**Can you go and find Larten for me Sire? I have to see him but I cannot leave here until I have had my bandages applied" I asked.**

"**Two things Sarah; one don't call me Sire it isn't necessary and two; of course I will find Larten for you" Prince Daren said then he left to get Larten for me.**

**I lay back in my medical bed and I tried to rest because my wounds were hurting. Some of the stab wounds were deep but they had not hit any vital areas which was a major relief. **

**I had a wash after I had been patched up to get rid of the dried blood and dirt out of my hair and off of my body because wrestling to the death is a very messy and dirty business let me tell you. **

**My clothing had been sliced into pieces so after the match I only had my armour on and it was rather uncomfortable but it effectively saved me because Darryl's dagger could not pierce it. **

"**Sarah my love, how are you feeling?" Larten asked me when he entered the medical wing.**

"**I feel like my body has been used as a sheath for every weapon in the mountain but luckily the dagger blade did not hit any of my vital organs" I explained. **

"**That is lucky Sarah. I see that your sword went the distance and I am glad that I had it made for you now. I have cleaned it and polished it, the sword is ready for use in our quarters packed away in the weapon closet" Larten said as he sat next to me whilst the medic was applying yards of bandages to my whole body and when he had finished I looked like an Egyptian mummy. **

**The bandages were kind of itchy but they kept me warm and they kept infection away from my wounds as that was always the concern in the mountain due to a lack of antiseptic and modern facilities.**

**I left the medical wing and I went to find Prince Vancha as I had promised to join him in a barrel of ale which I did. I had a lot of vampires congratulate me on my victory but I also had to show respect for Darryl's death. **

**I missed him because he would always come over to me and sit with me at meal times. He used to play cards with me also and he was good at chess but his hunting skills were the best that I had ever seen. **

**I was angry because the Princes knew how much Darryl meant to me as a friend because he was the only link that I had to Arra except for Larten. **

**I looked at how he would look at it though and at least now he would be with his beloved Arra again and after I had finished going around the halls I went to bed.**

**I dreamed of Darryl and Arra in Paradise walking around the vast, open lands and how they were taking care of my daughter who was also in my dream. I often saw Jiana in my dreams. I missed her awfully and although I had only known her for two days the bond was there, I missed Arra too but that was because I respected her and I knew that she would want me to pass my Trials. **

**I often confided in Larten about how I was feeling because he understood and he helped me get through the tough times with his advice and his unfaltering, unconditional love. **

**I was often in awe of this but that was just Larten's way. I felt so privileged that I had been lucky up until this point with my Trials. **

**Killing Darryl was the hardest thing that I had ever had to do apart from cremating my own daughter. I hated that Trial with a passion but it was over now and I had to focus on my next three Trials. **

**I was nervous about picking my next Trial because judging by what Trials I had already picked it was going to be a nasty one. My time came and I marched into the Prince's Dome ready to pick my next Trial.**

**I stuck my hand deep into the bag of numbered stones and I prayed that my next Trial would be one that did not involve killing.**

"**Number 136 the Murky Pool" Prince Vancha said.**

"**That sounds OK. What do I do dive to the bottom and retrieve something?" I asked.**

"**No you will be chained up and the key to your chains is enclosed in a block of ice underwater. Your partner has to get the key and release you before you both drown and before time runs out because it is pitch black and very deep down there. Did I mention that it's ice cold also?" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Oh my word Sire what a nightmare" I replied shaking.**

"**It is a nasty Trial I grant you but at least you can pick who your partner is" Prince Darren cut in.**

"**Very well if it is the will of the Gods then I will of course train and prepare myself for this newest challenge" I said as I looked at Larten with a look that said "Help me". **

"**You have three nights to train so I advise that you begin immediately. You need to adjust to the cold as well as holding your breath for an extended period of time" Prince Vancha replied as we left the Prince's Dome and headed for the training pool. **

**I was absolutely petrified but I held it together and I started to train. The training pool was very deep and when I sunk to the bottom in chains it was very scary. The training pool was clear and not murky but it was just as cold as the real pool where my Trial would take place. I was really scared because I could not hold my breath long enough so I had to work on it. I was on a rope in the training pool so when I could not hold it any longer the rope was wound up and I would be pulled up so that I could breathe. It was so tricky. The worst bit was having to hold my breath before I was submerged and then I had to hold it for as long as I could while Larten dug through the ice and got the key to release me. **

**Of course I had picked Larten as my partner because he had done this Trial as one of his own and he had partnered a couple of other vampires when they too took this Trial. **

**Even if this had of been the case I still would have picked Larten because I trusted him and I knew that he would not let anything happen to me regardless of any other factor. **

**Larten was also a quick, strong swimmer and that meant that he could dive in and get the key faster than most vampires could which was a great help to me because it meant that in theory I could be released and out of the water before I started having problems breathing or rather holding my breath. **

**The rules stated that until my chains were off Larten could not interact with me in any way except to unlock my chains. The rules did not say anything about not looking at me though so Larten kept on looking at me and that gave me courage and the confidence to keep on pushing through and I was able to hold my breath for longer each time I practiced. **

**I was bloody cold though and if I had had extra warm vampire blood in my veins I would have caught hypothermia and died if I had not of drowned first. **

**By the end of my first training session I was freezing cold, wet through and out of breath so much so that I could barely walk I was that tired from where I had used all of my energy to keep warm and keep on holding my breath. The next training session would be in the murky pool so that I could get a feel for what it would be like in the dark. **

**The murky pool was worse than what I had first imagined because it was not only dark and cold but it was full of weeds and mud at the bottom so that when I dropped to the bottom I was surrounded by mud and that made my eyes sting so much that I had to keep them tightly closed.**

**I had to focus on not panicking because my body was urging me to breathe and I knew that I could not so I had to overcome that sensation before my training went any further. **

**Also the block of ice that contained my key was huge and thick so it took Larten a while to break through it as he only had his hands no weapons were permitted. He had to punch the ice and use his nails to get through it as quickly as he could but he could not see anything so it was a challenge for us both. **

**I was permitted to wear a simple outfit to preserve my dignity but I could not wear anything thick or waterproof as it was forbidden. Larten had his swimming trunks on. He had invested in a pair when we were in the hotel so that he did not look out of place by the pool. I wanted to wear my dancing leotard but it was shrinkable if it got wet so I had to wear a dress and a pair of shorts underneath it. **

**After seven hours of gruelling training I was exhausted and freezing when I was released for the last time from the chains. I rose to the surface and pulled myself out of the pool then I collapsed in a heap on the floor with the cold and the exhaustion. I was barely conscious and very out of breath but I was alive and that was the main thing. **

**Larten threw his cloak around me to warm me up and after a bowl of fresh soup I was ready to face my Trial but I still had one night left so I spent it resting in preparation for this next challenge. I had to get all of my energy back and then I had to still be fit enough to take my last two Trials after this one. **

**When it came time to face this Trial I prepared myself and I was searched to make sure that I did not have a weapon or a spare key on me which I could use to cheat with.**

**Larten was also searched and when we were cleared I stood up and the chains were wrapped around me tightly. The chains in training had left me bruised and I still had not recovered fully from the injuries that I had sustained in my second Trial so I was not in the best condition. **

**I was lowered into the murky pool and then my Trial started. There was nothing but blackness. I heard the splash when Larten entered the pool so now I just had to sit tight and wait. I had my eyes closed and I tried to imagine myself as a human lying on the beach in Spain where I had gone every year before I had been blooded. It helped me to relax and that meant that I was able to hold my breath and focus. **

**Time was going by and I knew that the whole Trial had to be completed in one hour or it would be an automatic fail regardless of whether I was released or not. **

**Time was slipping by. I was getting the urge to breathe but I knew that if I did it would be my doom. I fought my body's instinct to open my mouth and breathe. It was so hard to ignore this urge to breathe. Larten seemed to take forever. I was wondering if he was able to break through the ice. I was scared for him because he had to hold his breath also except he was allowed to surface for air as it was not his Trial. That was good in a way but if he did then it would waste precious time. **

**I could hear a faint thudding noise. I think that it was Larten punching through the ice to get to the key. He would not give up on me and I was not going to give in to my body's instincts either! **

**Suddenly I heard an almighty cracking noise and then I heard a lot of water rushing by. I guessed that Larten had broken through the block of ice and it had collapsed causing a huge wave which was what had made all of the water come this way. I was knocked back by the huge surge of water and the chains made it hard for me to sit up again but I knew that I would soon be free of them. **

**It was too dark to see even if my eyes had of been open so I had to wait to feel Larten near me as I could not see him. I could hear faint noises but the water in my ears had made me almost deaf to what was happening around me. **

**Then I felt a warm sensation pressed against me and my chains were suddenly a lot looser so I wriggled out of them but I could not hold my breath any longer so Larten kissed me and transferred air to me from him while we surfaced. **

**I grabbed hold of the side of the pool and I pulled myself out and I lay there panting and shivering. **

**I looked at the clock and I had passed the Trial with twenty seconds to spare. I looked at Larten whose hands were bleeding badly from where he had punched through the ice and the mud which was on the bottom of the pool had got into the wounds so he had to wash them out thoroughly before he healed them up. **

**I lay still for a while panting and exhausted. I could not even talk as my teeth were chattering so much. I was very close to failure so I decided that the next Trial would be done better and with time to spare if there was a time limit.**

"**Well done Sarah you have passed your third Trial but it went to the final few seconds you very nearly ran out of time. Larten was amazing at breaking through the ice I doubt that I could have done better" Prince Vancha said to me when I had dried off and got my breath back. **

"**Thank you Sire I will tell Larten that when I see him. I am so tired right now and I am so cold I need a hot meal and a chair by the fire to warm up again" I replied.**

"**Are you OK darling?" A familiar voice asked me.**

"**I am freezing but I am OK. You undoubtedly saved me down there as I could not hold my breath any longer. We only had twenty seconds to go anyway so we were very lucky my love" I said as Larten once again draped his cloak around me so that I could warm up quicker. **

"**Yes we were very lucky. That ice was incredibly hard. It is not normally that thick but we have had a particularly harsh winter so the ice is thicker than normal" Larten replied.**

"**Prince Vancha said that you were amazing at breaking through that ice and he doubts if he could have done a better job" I told Larten.**

"**Well when the life of my blessed mate is on the line I have to perform at my best and even if it was not your third Trial I would still perform to the best of my ability and that goes for anybody else who takes that Trial if they pick me as their partner" Larten responded.**

"**That is one reason why I love you so much. You help anybody and if someone's life is in your hands you do your best no matter who they are. I respect you for that and I hope that my fourth Trial will be as far away from water as possible" I laughed.**

"**Just focus on recovering from this Trial first dear one and when the time comes to begin your next Trial I will be right there waiting and cheering for you" Larten replied. **

"**I know you will be and if I did not have your support I doubt that I could have made it this far" I said as I left the fire side in the main hall and returned to our quarters. **

**I checked my schedule and it said that I had a gap of twelve hours before I had to pick out my fourth Trial and begin training for it. I had free time scheduled and I had quality time with Larten scheduled but I focused on my recovery. Larten was very understanding and he did not mind that we only played cards and had a drink instead of mating because Larten knew that my body could not handle it. I was very sore from the bruises and the last thing I needed was to sustain any more injuries before my fourth Trial. **

**We talked a lot and we discussed everything that normal couples discussed except we had many more things to talk about and as Larten was so much older than me he could tell me stories and tales of his drunken youth which were hilarious but quite personal. **

**After that I went hawking which was one of my favourite hobbies. I loved my Harris hawks to pieces and they were beautiful. My hawks were superb hunters and they often brought back a rabbit for me even if I had not told them to. **

**My hawks had been a gift from Arra, in her will she had left her hawks to me as she knew that I would fly them and take great care of them. They were called Diamond and Angel. I loved them both and of course Arra had been given them as a gift from Darryl for her birthday. **

**Arra had been the one who had got me into hawking in the first place because she could not fly them simultaneously so she got me to hold one while she flew the other; then they both flew and they landed on our gloved fists. I loved it and it was a popular vampire pursuit along with hunting and sparring. **

**I enjoyed beating also but hacking was my favourite thing because there was nothing better than galloping through the woods when the moon was full and having the wolf pack run after us whilst we threw scraps of meat for them. **

**I went to bed at dawn and I dreamed of Paradise and the vast open plains where vampires could hunt and ride in peace without stopping. **

**I saw the ghostly forms of those vampires who had left us and I could see Darryl smiling at me and waving from his seat. Darryl knew no more pain and he knew no more hardship plus he was with Arra and they looked happy to be reunited again forever. **

**I missed them all terribly but I knew that I would be reunited with them again one day then we would all hunt and hawk forever more whilst watching down on the mountain and its inhabitants. **

"**Larten I had a dream about Paradise again" I said when the sun had set and we were both up and awake.**

"**What did you see this time darling?" Larten asked me.**

"**I saw Darryl and Arra. They were smiling and waving at me. I saw the other vampires too; they were riding around and having fun. Their spirits look happy" I replied.**

"**Well surely then that is a good dream" Larten said in reply.**

"**It is a good dream but I miss our friends so much Darryl especially as he did not need to die and Arra made the ultimate sacrifice for our clan" I said as I tried hard not to cry.**

"**That is the vampire way. I never said that it would be easy darling but you have me and Gavnur to watch over you not to mention Seba, Darren and the rest of the Princes plus Vanez" Larten replied as he wiped away a tear from my eye.**

"**I guess so but it is not the same without them here. I feel so lost and alone sometimes Larten it is silly. I feel like I have you but with the others it is different because they are your friends. They accept me because of you but I do not know if they actually like me for myself" I said ruefully. **

"**Everybody in the clan likes you dearest and you heard the Generals cheering for you when you took your last three Trials. I can guarantee that nobody will ever love you or care about you and for you as much as I do though. That is why I wanted you as my blessed mate; I wished to show the whole clan exactly what you meant to me and what you still mean to me" Larten said. **

"**Aww Larten you can be so sweet sometimes. I bet that I love you more than what you love me though" I smiled.**

"**Are you sure about that? I meant every word of my mateship vows my darling and nothing will ever change that no matter what happens" Larten replied.**

"**I know that but we have had a pretty rough time recently with Jiana's death then Darryl having to leave us in such a manner and now that I have two more Trials to pass my ordeal is not over yet" I replied.**

"**You just focus on passing your Trials Sarah and I will stand by you no matter what you have to face for that is what I promised you with the Vampire Gods as my witnesses and nothing will stop me from standing by you. Des Tiny is dead so not even he or his now extinct vampaneze hoard can stop us now" Larten said as he held me close to him for what seemed like the first time in a while.**

**I knew that Larten was right but it was hard to be away from the clan members who had been such good friends to me. I knew that I had to concentrate on my next two Trials and I knew that Larten was right about everything but I still cried and I was still emotional. It was the one part of my humanity that had remained with me. **

**I knew that I had just enough time to grab a snack before I had to go and pick my fourth Trial of Death. I fixed myself a bowl of stew which I wolfed down and then I very calmly but stiffly made my way to the Prince's Dome to pick out my fourth Trial. I begged the Vampire Gods that my fourth Trial would have nothing to do with water or fighting to the death but I knew that it was all luck and that the Vampire Gods had no say in what Trial I picked out. **

"**Trial number 145 The Gauntlet" Prince Arrow announced. **

"**OK this is going to be another tough test of endurance I see" I said.**

"**You must run through the gauntlet without flitting whilst dodging the obstacles and at the end you have to climb up a cliff and retrieve a hidden stone with a mark on it before the clock reaches zero. Is that clear?" Prince Arrow explained.**

"**It is clear but how long do I get?" I asked.**

"**Ten minutes is the maximum time allowed" Prince Arrow said.**

"**OK I will begin training straight away. I will have to work on my speed and my dodging skills for this Trial" I said.**

**I was just about to leave when Prince Arrow called me back and he said;**

"**Did I mention that you get a different set of obstacles each time? That way you never know what you are facing" **

"**Oh right well that makes things difficult I guess that I will have to train and learn how to dodge everything so that I am prepared to face any obstacle that is thrown at me" I said as I turned to leave and start training for this latest Trial of Death. **

"**Larten, do you know about the Gauntlet?" I asked. **

"**I do as it was one of Arra's Trials of Death when she took them for the second time. That was when we had only been mates for a couple of weeks and so that she could focus she banished me from her quarters but she let me train her" Larten explained.**

"**So your honeymoon period was cut short. That is so unfair but I guess that she made it up to you when she could" I said.**

"**Arra never made it up to me; she assumed that I would not mind and she focused on her Trials. To Arra mating came near the bottom of her priority list as to her it was not important compared to her duelling, duties and her Trial training" Larten said.**

"**Oh right well at least you know about the Gauntlet. I guess that when you were training Arra you found it hard to concentrate as you had other things on your mind whilst Arra was showing off her skills" I said cheekily.**

"**It was like that to start with but she knocked some sense into me and after that I respected her wishes. Arra was quite a forceful character and if she did not want to do something nothing could make her do it; I suffered a few well aimed punches from her when she was in one of her moods and yet she was only moody when I was not satisfying her. Ironic really" Larten replied. **

"**Yes that is kind of ironic but anyway I had better begin training now. What am I facing Larten?" I asked.**

"**You are facing a range of obstacles from spiked walls and falling rocks to all kinds of things that you have to either climb up, jump over or dodge completely" Larten said.**

"**I guess that my acrobatic skills will be of use to me but speed is the issue because I have to dodge everything and then have enough time left to climb up that cliff, find the stone and come back down again. Time wise it is a total nightmare" I replied.**

"**Do not worry about it darling. In training there is no time limit until the actual final run through. All you have to do is remember how to dodge or get past each different obstacle and the rest will come naturally as when you begin dodging one object you will feel a sense of rhythm and then you will be able to get past the rest because they are timed" **

"**Oh right like dancing then? Dodge to the beat as it were" I said.**

"**Yes that is one way of describing it Sarah. Watch me run through it first so you get the idea; if you want music to help you keep on time that can be arranged as that is not against the rules" Larten said as he went to the start of the obstacle course and I watched him as he counted out a rhythm before he got over the first obstacle and then he kept on going until he vaulted up the cliff and came back to me holding the stone so that I knew what I was looking for when I eventually got up to the cliff.**

**I was alright to begin with but the thing that I hated was vaulting over this big rock onto a bridge that was burning. The bit that got me was crossing the bridge before it fell to the ground taking me with it. You only got a few seconds to run the bridge and get up the ladder onto the next obstacle before the next obstacle began to move and if you missed it then you would either lose your timing or fall to the ground which was a fail. **

**I did my best but it was not easy and I crashed to the ground several times before I finally got the timing right and that was before the obstacles were moved around again which would give me another set of timings to learn. **

**I tried extremely hard to master each obstacle and each set of timings so that I would be prepared for my Trial. I was grateful for the period of preparation that I had as not only did it give me time train but it gave me time to heal between each Trial. Larten cheered me on all the way and he always caught me if I fell to prevent further injury. **

**In order to help me keep timings he danced with me and that provided a visual memory for me so that each one of my dodges would be associated with a dance step to help me remember what came next as it were. **

**Singing helped me also and at the end of my second training session I had got the hang of most obstacles. A few were giving me problems but that could be worked on in the final training session. **

**I was not allowed to know what obstacles that I would be facing or what order they would be put in so I trained with as many different timings as possible in order to prepare myself and I made sure that I was as flexible as I possibly could be so that I could slip past most things by flipping and side dodging them so that I could conserve my energy for the cliff climb. **

**The cliff was huge! It was very wide and very high and I basically had to either climb up it or vault it and then find the tiny blue stone that had been marked with an "X" as there were lots of blue stones up there. **

**I trained hard and I pushed myself to my limits but I had not done it with a time limit yet and with only ten minutes to complete the Trial I had to speed up on some sections but I could not flit so I had to control my speed. It is so hard to control your speed when you are pumped full of adrenaline and ready to face a challenge like this. **

"**Larten I have not been timed yet. I need to know if I can do this Trial within the time limit or there is no point in training like this if my timings are out of whack" I said.**

"**I will time you. I will just fetch the timer and then you will know if you are in time or not and it is about time that we worked on your speed control anyway" Larten said then he left to fetch the sand timer that we had to time Trials with. It was quite accurate so it was a good way of measuring if I was in time or not.**

**My speed control was hard to master because I was so pumped at the beginning that I was nearly at flitting speed anyway so I had to be really careful about not hitting full flitting speed as that would be a fail. **

"**You are way too quick at the start, you must slow it down and remember the timing of that rock fall or you will be flattened" Larten shouted at me from the other end of the course.**

**I am sorry Larten it is just so hard to dodge those rocks and be slow enough not to hit flitting speed but quick enough to keep my timing and my rhythm going" I complained.**

"**Nobody said that this was easy. Watch me do it if that helps" Larten replied.**

"**OK you do it if you are so good" I called back. I went back to the start and I watched Larten dodge the falling rocks and then he hopped up onto the next set of equipment before he ran over the burning bridge and then he returned to me with the stone with three minutes to spare.**

"**Wow you really know what you are doing. I wish that you could take this Trial for me darling. You make it look to easy" I said.**

"**I know you do but that is neither here nor there. We have a lot of work to do and you are nowhere near ready yet. You only have three hours left before you do your final run through before the real thing" Larten said.**

"**I know that dearest that is why I am working so hard" I replied.**

"**What you need is a something to help you remember when to slow down and speed up. I have an idea" Larten replied with a suggestive look.**

"**Surely you are not thinking about mating at a time like this! You men are all the same" I said.**

"**Well not exactly. You know that when we do mate we play with each other, we tease each other and we tell each other to speed up and slow down to make the feeling last? Well imagine that in your head when you are dodging those rocks and that may help your timing" Larten said.**

"**Oh right I understand now. That may help me because you know what I am like but I will have to try not to get too excited as it were. If I get too stimulated I will lose my focus and then I am a goner. It is risky" I replied.**

"**Just try to focus on the rocks and forget those sensations. Switch them off like you did with your urge to breathe in the pool" Larten said.**

"**OK Larten if you think that will help I will give it a go" I replied and I gave it a try. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to pick up the timings with this memory aid to help me. I tried my best not to get too distracted because the thoughts of Larten and I together filled my head but I had to focus on the rhythm and not on the moves that we performed as it were. **

**I eventually got the hang of it and I dodged the falling rocks with ease. I flipped through them and knocked them out of the way to make the path to the burning bridge clear. I ran across the burning bridge and launched myself at the cliff. I dug my nails deep into the rock of the cliff and I climbed up it quickly and then I began my search for the marked stone. The stone was tiny and when it was mixed in with the other stones it was damn near impossible to find but eventually I got it and I raced to the finish line. I had done it! I had perfected my timings and now I was ready to take the Trial for real. **

"**You had one minute to spare when you got back here so you did really well and you are now ready to take the Trial for real" Larten said.**

"**I know but I still have an hour to go before I do this thing for real. I think that I should run through it again just to be doubly sure that I can do it" I said.**

"**No Sarah you need to rest and clear your mind. Anyway you need some balm put on those bruises remember?" Larten said sternly.**

"**OK then if that is what you say then I will of course obey you but I am so pumped right now" I replied.**

"**I will meet you in the medical wing and tell the medic to make some bruise reducing patches" Larten instructed me.**

"**As you wish my love" I replied and I left to sort it out. I loved Larten and although he was my blessed mate he could still order me to do something but he normally never did. I knew that he knew best so I just followed his instructions. **

"**Medic, medic where are you?" I called out when I got to the medical wing.**

"**I am over here sorting out Gavnur's arm. He has had a bad landing when he was fixing the ceiling of his quarters. The ladder broke under him and he fell badly. The ladder splintered and pierced his arm" The medic said.**

**I looked at Gavnur's arm with a piece of wood sticking out of it and it was a horrible sight.**

"**Think yourself lucky that the ladder pierced your arm and not your heart" I said.**

"**I guess but it really hurts. This will damage my good looks" Gavnur laughed.**

"**What looks?" I laughed back.**

"**Why you little b…" Gavnur began then stopped when he saw Larten towering over him.**

"**Hey Larten I have to wait as you can see Gavnur has a much more serious injury" I said.**

"**You think that wound is bad? I heard what you were about to say Gavnur before you saw me. You will pay for that" Larten said sternly.**

"**Leave it Larten we were just messing around and anyway I deserved it for implying that Gavnur is not good looking" I explained.**

"**Oh right. You were taunting each other in jest?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes that is all. It is funny to see you getting worked up like this" I said.**

"**I am only looking after you and using bad language in front of a lady or calling a lady by a rude name is very bad manners" Larten said and he said it he glared at Gavnur.**

"**I am sorry Larten for insulting your mate. Can you forgive me?" Gavnur pleaded.**

"**Sarah do you forgive Gavnur's foul language? Or what would have been foul language if I had not have come along" Larten asked me.**

"**Of course I forgive you Gavnur, unlike some people I can take a joke" I said smiling at Gavnur who grinned back.**

"**This matter is over. How long will it take you to fix Gavnur's arm up Medic? Sarah has not got long before her next Trial" Larten asked.**

"**It will take as long as it takes. You cannot rush this because if I cut a vein when I am removing the wooden splinter Gavnur could bleed to death and you would not want that now would you Larten?" The medic said as he very slowly removed the splinter out of Gavnur's arm.**

"**I understand that. We have had enough deaths already this year we do not want another" Larten said.**

"**I am in so much pain Larten it is unreal" Gavnur said as the medic got the wood splinter out with a slow, gentle tug.**

"**If Sarah can give birth then a wood splinter is nothing you big baby. You never were good with pain. You yelped like a wounded dog when I blooded you" Larten said.**

"**That was the vampire blood hitting my heart. It hurt me alright" Gavnur said as the medic began to stitch up Gavnur's arm. **

"**It hurt me too but I made no complaints did I? I am used to pain though because I like to live a rough life. You were always attached to human comforts" Larten replied as he started to apply the bruise patches to my body. I was covered in bruises and I had new scars from where I had taken my second Trial. **

"**Just think Gavnur if I can do it and I am twenty four then you can do it and you are so much older than me. I have been through hell and yet I survived it so stop complaining about a little cut arm when there are so many things out there that are worse like rabid bears" I reminded Gavnur. **

"**Alright Sarah I will try and toughen myself up. I forgot that you had been mauled by a bear" Gavnur said.**

"**Sarah it is time to go. Your Trial will begin soon" Larten said.**

"**Alright Larten I will see you later Gavnur" I said and I left the medical wing covered in bandages and bruise patches. I felt them working but they did not smell that good.**

**I entered the gauntlet, the real gauntlet this time and not the training one. I saw what obstacles I had to face. I had a lot of things to vault over and climb up and then I had some things to crawl under before a huge net full of rocks would be emptied and then the burning bridge was next before I got to the cliff. **

"**Sarah are you ready?" Prince Mika asked. **

"**I am as prepared and as ready now as what I will ever be. I have done all that I can to prepare myself. It is up to the Vampire Gods now and me" I replied.**

"**Then go for it and may the luck of the vampires be with you Sarah" Prince Mika said. **

"**Larten I will see you at the finish line. I love you lots" I said as I stepped onto the start line.**

"**Go for it Sarah and remember what I said to you earlier. I love you too by the way" Larten replied.**

"**Begin your passage" Prince Mika said and I vaulted up and over the first obstacle before flipping over the next two simultaneously. I dodged a few shurikens that were being thrown at me and there was a volley of spear heads that came out of holes in the sides of the gauntlet. I crawled on the ground and they went over my head. Next came the tricky part of the course which was the net of rocks and the burning bridge that I had to get through. I froze at the sight of the net of rocks hanging over my head because I knew that if I took one more step the net would fall and the rocks would come crashing down around me. I spent a few moments meditating before I made a dash for the burning bridge that was near collapse. **

**I dodged most of the rocks but one came down and it landed on my shoulder and bounced off and that hurt me let me tell you but I had to focus on the bridge. I stepped onto it and it fell beneath my feet! I could feel myself falling to the ground my Trial was over I had failed…**

**Or so I thought but by some miracle the bridge did not fall completely it fell sideways like a ladder so I climbed up it burning my hands badly but it was either that or fail. My whole body was burnt and I was in a lot of pain but I managed to use what energy I had left to leap onto the cliff and I dug my nails into the rock. I climbed up it slowly. So slowly. Each movement I made was made in agony but I reached the top and I started scratting around like a chicken whilst I tried to find this stone with the mark on it. I saw it by my left foot so I picked it up and I descended the cliff very slowly and I walked to the finish line as it was not far to go. I had to jump up and over a fence of barbed wire first but once I was over that I made it and I presented the stone to Prince Mika before I collapsed on the ground with smoke inhalation and exhaustion.**

**I woke up in the medical wing in pain. I looked like an Egyptian mummy because I was covered in bandages and they were wet. I guess that was to soothe the burns. I was tired and hurting but I had passed my fourth Trial. **

"**I have never seen anybody so determined to pass a Trial of Death Sarah. You suffered fifteen per cent burns on that bridge but you did what you had to do" Larten said to me.**

"**I was not trained for that circumstance but I felt a presence with me on that bridge willing me on like I just had to pass because I had come so far" I explained.**

"**That was the adrenaline in your body and I think that Arra was watching over you because I felt a presence too" Larten said to me. **

"**Oh right. I think that she would be proud of me and my efforts so far. I have been through hell these past few nights but I am determined to pass these Trials no matter what" I replied.**

"**Arra was a stickler for rules and she loved a challenge. That is why she took the Trials of Death three times and she passed them all without flinching. You have done well but with these burns the next Trial may be a problem with your restricted movement" Larten replied as he dressed my burns because they were seeping through the bandages that I had on.**

"**Ow Larten that hurts" I said with fire in my eyes.**

"**I am sorry but I have to do this to prevent infection" Larten said as he tried to heal my burns with his spit and he put salve on the ones that had to heal on their own. **

"**You are very strong. I have never met anybody who can resist this amount of punishment and come out the other side even stronger. I have patched you up as best as I can since the Medic is not that good and I do not want him looking at your body without me there" Larten said. **

"**Thank you but now I must rest and heal as best as I can before I have to pick out my next and final Trial" I said.**

"**I will stay with you tonight in case you need anything; we have one of the private rooms down there. Gavnur is OK for I spoke to him earlier and he is going to be fine. Also the Princes wanted to tell you congratulations and that they were impressed with your determination to finish the Trial when others have faltered" Larten told me.**

"**Thank you for passing on their message and thank you for staying with me because I know how much you hate this place since the battle when Arra was taken into Paradise" I replied solemnly.**

"**Well I am your blessed mate and my place is by your side through the good times and the bad times; no matter what you are my main priority my love and nothing will harm you whilst I am here. I would rather die before letting anybody lay one hand on you" Larten responded. **

"**That is a very loyal thing of you to say. I never doubted your loyalty to me but I needed proof of it and you have given me that proof" I replied as I eased myself into bed as I was still very sore. I had to lie down on my side as my back and front were burned and bruised. Larten lay down in the coffin next to my bed as there was not enough room for us both in the medical bed. I was covered over with his cloak as normal and I lay on the side close to the coffin so that we were as close as what we could be to one another since Larten could not hold me close to him like he usually did. **

**I did not sleep very well because I was hurting and sore. I had another bad dream and this time it was about Des Tiny exacting his revenge from beyond the grave and Steve Leopard was coming for me, he was going to kill me and my days were numbered. I woke up in a cold sweat and I was not well at all. **

**I had been moaning in my sleep and tossing about like I was fighting something and I had no recollection of it but Larten had told me about it because it had disturbed him as he was a light sleeper. **

**I felt bad but it was not my fault and Larten did not mind much, normally if I started to shift around he would shake me until I woke up and then I would normally go back to sleep and I would be alright but sometimes I would wake up and get up because I would not be tired. **

**I did not mind getting up but it messed up my schedule so I had to be careful not to get up in the daytime too often. I did not mind being in the medical wing but I had been in and out so many times it was stupid. I had suffered more injuries than most people had and I was not the pretty girl that I had once been. **

**I had a scarred and patched up body that needed to have a long time to heal fully but alas I only had a few hours before I had to draw my fifth and final Trial out of the bag. **

**If I had still been half-blooded I would not have survived so long but I had survived and I had recovered remarkably well even if it was not a full recovery. If my friends or family saw me now they would not recognise me because the years on the road had taken its toll on me and living in the mountain was still hard not with the harsh winters and the weather was always unpredictable. I loved my life though and I would not trade it for the world. **

"**How are you feeling tonight my love?" Larten asked me when he eventually woke up.**

"**I am stiff and sore but I feel OK. I had another bad dream though and I have been awake for ages wishing that my body was not so damaged because I am not very attractive in this state" I muttered quietly.**

"**Nonsense that is total rubbish, you know how I feel about you dearest. I would not care if you lost both eyes and an arm because I would still love your personality" Larten replied.**

"**Well I hope that I do not lose any limbs or my eyes because then I could not gaze into your eyes anymore my love" I replied. **

"**What is it about my eyes that ladies love so much?" Larten asked himself whilst he was looking at me as if he wanted me to answer.**

"**It is the colour of them, that deep, piercing blue that no-one can resist. It is like your eyes can see into people's souls or something and when I look at you I feel all funny inside, I cannot explain it" I responded. **

"**You need to exercise before your next Trial as you will get stiff otherwise" Larten said.**

"**I can barely move as it is because the wounds keep opening up if I move too much" I complained.**

"**Oh right well I have healed as many of them as I can but I can try and heal them more if you want, would you like me to try? " Larten asked me.**

"**Anything to stop this pain my love" I replied.**

"**Alright well I will have to take the dressings off and wash the wounds out first then I can give it a go" Larten said.**

"**Thank you for this Larten" I said as I began to un-wrap the bandages on my body and on my arms. **

"**It is no trouble my love. I just hope that your accelerated healing has healed you a bit over night because I did as much as I could yesterday. Let us see how much better you are" Larten said as he examined my burned and bruised body.**

"**Well how is it?" I asked.**

"**You are still badly burned but the bruising has reduced slightly. I can try and heal you up a bit more before your next Trial" Larten said as he carefully wiped over my burns and bruises with a cloth and warm water. **

"**Ow that is really sore Larten" I said.**

"**Well it is a bad burn, this will have to heal on its own but I can try and heal some of the damage. Stand up and I will give it a go" Larten said.**

"**I stood up stiffly and I held onto a hand rail whilst Larten began to lick my wounds slowly as his spit would heal them. Vampire spit can heal most small wounds and burns but it cannot heal everything and deep wounds must heal on their own as vampire spit is not powerful enough to heal a deep wound and that is why vampires have accelerated healing powers. **

"**How is that now?" Larten asked.**

"**I can feel it working but I am still stiff" I replied.**

"**At least it is working a little bit" Larten said between licks.**

"**The pain has faded slightly but I will still take a couple of days to heal up but this burn on my chest is the main concern because if I draw out the Path of Needles or a similar Trial how on Earth am I supposed to do it?" I asked.**

"**We will worry about that later dear but now our main concern is getting you fit enough to pick out your next Trial before you begin training for it" Larten advised me.**

"**I guess that is the wise thing to do. I am still apprehensive though because to fail at the final hurdle would be a total disaster for us both" I explained.**

"**You will not fail Sarah and if anything happens to you I will plunge myself onto those stakes first to give you a softer landing" Larten laughed.**

"**That is great thinking. That way we will both die and enter Paradise together and the clan will have to cope without us. It is kind of romantic in a way but I have no desire for either of us to die" I smiled back as I was bandaged up again with my now slightly healed body feeling better. **

"**There you are my love all bandaged up and healed slightly more than what you were before" Larten said as he tied the bandage up. **

"**Thank you, I feel better and I think that I will be able to pick out my fifth Trial later tonight" I said.**

"**I hope so Larten, I want to get the Trials of Death completed and out of the way and then we can return to the Cirque Du Freak where we belong" I suggested. **

"**Yes I think that is a good idea but I would like to take some time out and go back to one of our homes so that we can spend some time together alone and in peace" Larten replied.**

"**Yes that would be good I would like to go back to the hayloft" I said.**

"**That is all the way in England, I wanted to go back to the manor house that we visited before unless you want to go to a hotel for a bit whilst we decide which path to take" Larten said.**

"**I had forgotten about that manor house, I like the hotel idea as I need some human comforts. I want to know what the year is, what the date is and what is on TV nowadays" I said. **

"**Alright then a hotel it is and of course I shall spare no expense for you as we both need a break from this vampire lifestyle once in a while" Larten said.**

"**Well we never did celebrate Christmas at the Cirque Du Freak and I have my skating outfit hanging up ready to go but we need to make that outfit for Truska as we said that we would" I reminded Larten who smiled at the thought of seeing Truska dressed up like a Christmas tree. **

**Then I noticed the medic coming to our door so I let him in.**

"**How are you tonight Sarah? You are meant to draw your Trial in half an hour" The medic said.**

"**I am Ok thank you Medic. I am on my way to the Prince's Dome now but I remembered something that I have to do when I return to the Cirque Du Freak" I explained as I left the medical wing and then I headed off to the Prince's Dome with Larten following me like a big, red shadow. **

"**Sarah you are looking well after your very brave run in the Gauntlet. I have never seen a vampiress grab onto a bridge with such determination to survive. I saw you climb up it like a ladder when it collapsed and you were burned badly but you somehow managed to hold on and climb up it regardless of the fire. You were amazing to watch and I saw you training, I know that you worked really hard and it paid off in the end" Prince Darren said to me. **

"**I was put through my paces as it were and I trained relentlessly" I replied as I stuck my hand into the bag and picked out another numbered stone.**

"**Number 235 Balance Beams" Prince Darren announced.**

"**OK that sounds easy to me. I perform balancing acts all the time and I am experienced on the Bars" I said with a grin.**

"**It is not that simple Sarah. You have to cross a moving rounded beam that spins round and round whilst you cross it and you are walking over a pit of jagged stones and stakes 9ft off of the ground" Prince Darren explained. **

"**Oh right then I understand. Can I cross in any way?" I asked.**

"**You must cross on your feet. If you slip off or fall down you fail and if you grab on with your hands whilst falling you fail too. It is sheer balance and nothing else and no flitting over the beam either" Prince Darren said.**

"**Oh right then I will begin training straight away" I said and I left for the training hall. **

"**Larten I need help. I can barely walk let alone balance on a moving beam and cross it" I said as I looked up at the training beam. **

"**Well there is no advice that I can give you as I have never done this Trial and nobody I know has ever passed it. This Trial has taken many lives and it is the worst one that you could have picked except for the Blooded Boars or maybe the Hall of Flames" Larten said sadly.**

"**Well if that is the case I had better make my peace with the Vampire Gods and set my affairs in order instead of wasting what time I have left training for this impossible Trial" I replied with sadness in my voice and tears in my eyes.**

"**If that is what you truly feel then you can retire from the Trials and face the penalty for failing as retiring is classed as failure" Larten replied as he held me close to him.**

"**I do not wish to but I would rather spend my time left as a free vampiress rather than getting stressed out and upset over this Trial. I will tell the Princes that I have decided to retire. How long will I have left after I announce my retirement?" I asked Larten.**

"**Traditionally you get three days to set your affairs in order and then at midnight on the fourth day you are collected from your quarters, prepared and then lead to the Hall of Death where you will be dropped on the stakes until you die" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right well that is not a long time. I have to make sure that everything that I have always wanted to do I get done and I hope that you will be there with me at the end" I said.**

"**So this is your decision? You are just going to give up without trying to pass this Trial and of course I will be there with you. I will follow you in death but I do not agree with giving up like this" Larten said. **

"**What choice have I got? I will train and fail the Trial or retire with honour and then enter Paradise soon after" I asked. **

"**You must not give up like this Sarah. I will not let you do this and I will do whatever it takes to help you through this Trial. You thought the same thing about the Murky Pool and you passed that Trial. Would Darryl want you to surrender? If you do surrender then he will have died for no reason" Larten replied.**

"**I guess that is true. I would never hear the end of it if I surrendered. I would be taunted in Paradise for eternity by Darryl, Arra, Prince Paris and my spirit would get no peace. You would taunt me also I am sure" I responded.**

"**I would not taunt you but we would not get any rest. Besides we are both too young to die" Larten said.**

"**Oh alright Larten I will not surrender I will train and I will do my very best to pass this nasty Trial" I said.**

"**That is more like the Sarah that I know. I will get somebody to help you because I have no idea how to pass this Trial" Larten replied.**

"**Thank you Larten. If Arra was here I am sure that she would have a strategy for this kind of Trial. It is something that would suit her perfectly but alas I am not Arra and I never will be" I said. **

"**Arra may not be here physically but she is all around us and I am sure that she would hear you if you asked her for help. It is strange but if you were to pray to Arra then maybe she could visit you in a dream or something and help you" Larten suggested.**

"**Do you think that it will work?" I asked.**

"**I have no idea but it is worth a try Sarah. No harm can come from you trying" Larten replied.**

"**Alright I will give it a go. When is the best time to ask?" I asked.**

"**Any time you like. There is no set time but just make sure that when you do it you are thinking only of Arra" Larten replied.**

"**I will give it a go now if that is OK with you?" I asked.**

"**Go for it Sarah and let us see what happens" Larten replied.**

"**Arra I ask you if you can hear me. I am asking that you hear my call and help me with this Trial. I ask that you watch over me and guide me. I ask that you watch over my dear Jiana and I ask this in my name and in Larten's name. If you can hear me please send me a sign" I said out loud with my head facing Paradise. **

**Nothing happened and I was disappointed. **

"**Well it was worth a shot Larten. It is I alone who will have to face this Trial and pass it" **

"**I guess so but at least you tried" Larten replied.**

**Just then I heard an almighty crash and I saw that a sword on a rack fell to the floor and then Arra's staff went crashing to the ground as well. **

"**What on Earth caused that?" I asked.**

"**Gravity maybe after all those racks are pretty old" Larten replied.**

"**Or it is Arra sending us a sign" I said.**

**Then Larten looked at me all funny and he fell to the ground landing on his back.**

"**What the hell just happened?" I asked.**

"**I was pushed over. I felt a huge force knocking me to the ground that I could not resist" Larten explained.**

"**It must be Arra then showing us that she is here in this room" I said.**

**Arra if you are here show me some other sign so that I know it is you and not my imagination" Larten said.**

**At this point I felt a force pushing me near to the door so I opened it and walked out as if Arra wanted to be alone with Larten. I tried to listen in but there was silence. I wanted to walk in but I dared not disturb the ghost of Arra and Larten together.**

**Eventually I got a feeling that told me that told me to go back in the room so I did.**

"**What the hell happened Larten?" I asked.**

"**Arra was here in this room. I could feel her all around me and there was this pure white light that surrounded me. I was engulfed by it and I do not know what happened. I could feel the same tingling sensation that I used to get when I saw Arra and then the light faded; then you came back in here" Larten said.**

"**Wow that must have been experience for you Larten. I did not know that spirits of dead vampires could come back to us" I said.**

"**They cannot come back but Arra and I had a special bond. We had unfinished business and that is why she came back. I had to release her as I was holding on to her in my heart and until I did that she could not fully enter Paradise as a free spirit" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right I understand. Did you release her?" I asked.**

"**Of course I did and she forgave me for my mistakes then the light vanished" Larten replied.**

"**What about my Trial though? Can Arra help me or not?" I asked.**

"**I am afraid not Sarah because spirits are not allowed to interfere with the living as it messes with the fabric of life and death" Larten said.**

"**Oh right I understand. If they could we would have ghosts everywhere and then there would be no need for Paradise as no ghost would want to leave their loved ones behind" I replied.**

"**Precisely now are you going to start training for this Trial?" Larten asked.**

"**Of course I am but I am still freaked out by what just happened" I said.**

"**It was rather strange but I feel better now. I have been trying so hard not to let Arra go that I forgot that I had to release her for her sake. I miss Arra so much it is unbearable but I have you now so I must take care of you and I must honour my mateship vows" Larten replied as I hopped up onto the balance beam for the first time. The beam started twisting around and it was really fast. It was damn near impossible to stay on it and I could take three steps before I lost my balance and fell off into Larten's arms. **

**I tried to do it really quickly and I tried to do it slowly but it was no good I just fell off time after time. **

"**This is hopeless Larten. I am never going to pass this Trial" I said as I fell off for the umpteenth time. I was tired, hurting and frustrated.**

"**Just keep trying Sarah you will do it in the end. Try using dance steps or go on to your tip toes" Larten suggested.**

**I tried to dance across the beam but it was useless and when I was on tiptoes it helped but I still fell off. **

"**This Trial has got me stumped. I have no idea how to do it or how to pass it" I said.**

"**This is useless. Come down and have a break Sarah for you have done loads tonight. There is nothing more to be done tonight" Larten said.**

**I hopped down off of the beam and drank deeply from my hip flask, I was totally parched. **

**I felt like this was the end of me. I was petrified of failing my Trial and being executed. Just then Prince Darren walked in. He had come to check on my progress.**

"**How is your training going Sarah?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**It is awful Sire. I keep falling off and I can only take three steps before I fall" I explained.**

"**Well you will have to keep on trying. You have done so well up until this point and you mustn't give up now Sarah" Prince Darren said.**

"**I have no intention of giving up Sire. I will do whatever it takes to pass this fifth Trial and truly take my place in the Clan" I responded. **

"**I am glad to hear it and please don't call me Sire anymore. Call me Darren as we are good friends and we have been for years" Prince Darren said.**

"**OK if that is your wish S- Darren sorry" I said.**

"**I am really worried about this Trial Sarah. You are not doing very well and you keep falling off at the same point so maybe it is another timing issue" Larten said.**

"**OK well I will see if it is my timing or if it is just too hard for me to balance" I said as I hopped back onto the balance beam and I tried again to cross to the other platform. This time I waited slightly longer before I took a step and just before I fell off I jumped up and then I landed on a slightly flatter part of the beam and then I hopped onto the next section and then I had to dodge a sweeping arm as well as crossing the beam without falling off. **

**It was so hard and I fell off twice more before I eventually did it and I stepped onto the opposite platform. I was elated that I had finally done it and I had learned the secret to success-jump up just before you fall and land on another part of the beam then cross over quickly before the beam gets too fast.**

"**Well done Sarah. I thought that you would figure it out eventually and you still have two nights of practice to perfect your crossing" Larten said to me as I hopped off of the finish platform and into his waiting arms. Larten took great care when he caught me because I was still sore and although I did not show it I was in a lot of pain. **

**I was pleased that I had finally figured out how to pass the Trial and now I just wanted to get it out of the way so that I could leave the mountain and return to the Cirque Du Freak in time for Christmas. **

**Larten hated Christmas with a vengeance as when he had been human he had always been too poor to give or receive a gift so he saw it as a waste of time until Arra came along and tried to change his mind about it because she loved Christmas. **

**Arra had spent her Christmases with Lady Evanna as a servant girl before she was released. Lady Evanna loved Christmas and she made sure that her servants loved it as much as she did, she conjured presents out of thin air and she transformed a few twigs into a glowing Christmas tree. **

**Larten tried to keep Arra happy by celebrating it with her but he never really got the point of it and he called it a: **

"**Frivolous human tradition that has no meaning to vampirists like me" Arra had tried to change his mind by spoiling him and she showed him how fun it was to feast, drink and be merry. **

**Arra said that Christmas was the one time of the year when she felt "loved and safe". Larten was missing Arra so much because he had always hated being away from her at the time of year when people are supposed to come together and celebrate. **

**Now that Arra was gone Larten regretted his decision to stay with the Cirque Du Freak instead of returning to her at Christmas when he had the chance because then he could have spent more time with her and then he would have had some more memories of her instead of being so dedicated to his duties. **

**One year though Arra was bored and she left the mountain alone with nothing but her weapons and a set of spare clothes. Arra flitted through the night to get to the Cirque Du Freak to visit Larten. **

**Larten had not been expecting her so when she turned up exhausted and weak he had to take care of her but he was seeing someone else at the time so he was torn between them. **

**As a result of this a vicious fight had broken out between Arra and the other woman who was with Larten at the time and Arra was banned from the Cirque Du freak permanently for her conduct. **

**It would not have been so bad if Arra had not walked in on Larten and the other woman in a compromising position. Arra had heard someone scream and she went to investigate and that is when she discovered Larten and this other woman having sex. **

**The scream had come from the woman when Larten had dug his nails into her fingers in order to blood her whilst he was sleeping with her. Arra had heard everything and she knew from experience that no-one screamed like that unless they had a good reason to do so.**

**After that unfortunate incident Larten and Arra decided that they should separate for a while because Arra was one of those vampiresses who got jealous when she saw other women with Larten and Larten had really pissed her off by getting with somebody else when she had intended to reinstate their mateship again. **

**Arra had even decided to join the Cirque Du Freak but it did not work out that way…or so Larten told it to me that way. I was not sure if that was really the case but I did not want to upset Larten so I left it. **

**After that event had happened Larten and Arra did not speak or see each other for a long time. Larten travelled the world and Arra who was broken hearted returned to the mountain and spent her time duelling and drinking copious amounts of alcohol to block out the pain that she felt. **

**Despite all of this Arra always hoped that Larten would return to the mountain and make her his once more and that belief kept her going. When Arra felt down or sad all she had to do was remember the nights that she had enjoyed and all of the fun that she had enjoyed when she and Larten had been together. **

**Arra had been blooded by Larten and that meant that no matter what she did Larten was inside her and that meant a lot to her. Arra always had the bracelet that Larten had given her and she also had a ring which she never took off. It was only a simple band of diamonds but it was hers and she had given Larten a necklace in return.**

**Arra had no money to speak of so she had to borrow some and then she paid it back by doing extra chores and duties around the mountain. **

**Larten still wore the necklace around his neck as he had promised never to take it off and that was OK with me as it was his way of keeping Arra with him wherever he went and Arra had done the same whilst she was alive. **

**Anyway I had spent enough time resting and listening to Larten protesting about celebrating Christmas so I returned to my training and I nailed it.**

**Suddenly the balance beam was not anywhere near as scary as what it had been and I even had a go on the real one just to test out my strategy and it worked. The real balance beam spun around really fast and the sweeping arm was pretty quick too. I had to remember when to jump and where to land for a slight miscalculation would be the end of me. **

**The real balance beam was also thinner than the training one. It was like walking on the tightrope at the Cirque Du Freak except this one was thinner, it was made of wood and it spun around. **

**I spent the next two nights on the real balance beam practicing and getting used to how thin and wobbly it was before I actually had to cross it for real. **

"**Larten have you seen how good I am on the balance beam now?" I asked.**

"**No as I have been busy with other things but let me see" Larten said.**

"**As you wish Larten" I said as I hopped up onto the starting platform and began my crossing. I was a bit wobbly but I made it across the beam and I dodged the sweeping arm by jumping up and over it.**

"**Wow Sarah you have really worked hard on this Trial. You should have no issues with it tomorrow night" Larten replied. **

"**Well I have focused on nothing else and now my training is paying off because I can do it now as where I could not do it before" I replied.**

"**The best news is that you have some free time now before tomorrow night and the other news is that you have healed up quite well now thanks to me" Larten replied. **

"**Yes I know that Larten but my accelerated healing has helped as well it was not just you" I replied.**

"**I am glad that you have healed up well enough to take the Trial tomorrow. How do you want to spend your free time?" Larten asked me.**

"**I was hoping to spend it with you in our quarters" I replied. **

"**Sorry to interrupt but you owe me a duel Larten you promised" Raven cut in.**

"**Yes I was coming to that. Are you out of mourning for Darryl now?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes and Sarah I forgive you. I knew that you were only doing what you had to do and had circumstances been different I would have done the same thing" Raven said. **

"**I am sorry that is had to be that way Raven I truly am and I regret it. Now what is all this about a duel?" I asked.**

"**Oh Larten and I had a deal that if I finished all of my duties and if I helped him with a few errands he would duel me on the Bars and teach me a few things" Raven explained.**

"**Well I have not heard about this until now Raven and it is fine by me but we have a couple of things to sort out in our quarters first do we not?" I said as I looked at Larten in a certain way.**

"**Yes Sarah and I have some cleaning to do however I will duel you tomorrow after Sarah has passed her Trial" Larten told Raven.**

"**That is fine by me Larten. I want to wish you good luck for your last Trial Sarah. I hope that you pass it with flitting colours" Raven said as she left.**

"**Come on then Larten let us go and clean up our quarters. It is a right mess in there as you do not clean them, you leave it up to me to keep the place clean" I complained.**

"**It is dusty in there I grant you but it is not that dirty. I do clean the carpet and I change the bed sheets" Larten said.**

"**You never dust or polish anything and some of the ornaments need washing. It will not take long however" I said as I entered our quarters and it was very messy. **

**I had not seen it this messy for a while. There were clothes scattered everywhere and the whole room was very dusty. You could tell that I had not been in there for a long time. I had been sleeping in the medical wing and I had not been able to clean up due to my injuries and my training schedule. **

**I had hoped that Larten would have cleaned up but he was not one for manual labour and he saw it as my duty so I did it without complaint. I did a good job and soon our quarters were all clean and neat just as they had been before I started my Trials. **

**I lay on the bed and Larten lay next to me. We had not been close for a while due to my injuries and it was not really possible or appropriate to do anything in the medical wing so we had not been together for quite a while and we had missed each other's warmth and I had missed Larten holding me whilst I slept. **

**It felt so nice to be with each other again and we kissed each other for the first time in what seemed like weeks. It had been so long that I had quite forgotten what it felt like and it took me by surprise but Larten being the same as ever made it good for me and I loved the sensation that I got from it.**

**I needed it because I felt like our bond was not as strong as it had been and where I had been training so hard I had focussed solely on that and our relationship had suffered slightly. I was moody and short tempered also if I got it wrong I became frustrated and I took it out on Larten as he was the one who was training me for the Trials in the first place.**

**I was happy that I had passed four out of five Trials and none of them had been easy but this last Trial had been the most frustrating because it had been very hard to master and there had been several times when I had felt like jacking the whole thing in and giving up. I knew that if I did that though Darryl would have died in vain. Arra would never forgive me for surrendering and neither would Larten so I pushed on through and I kept on training until I got it right. **

**I was not thinking about my Trials now though I was having a rest from that stress. I was curled up in bed and I was focussed on Larten and nothing else.**

"**Are you Ok?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am fine Larten but I am bored" I said.**

"**I can remedy your boredom if you feel up to it" Larten replied.**

"**Alright but not too much because I need my strength for tomorrow night. The last thing that I need is to be exhausted and tired before a Trial, lose my focus as a result and fail at the last hurdle" I replied.**

"**I will try and take it easy on you, after the last time I have had to try and calm myself so that it is good but not too rough" Larten said.**

"**I remember those bruises alright, it looked like I had been pinned down and forced. I had finger marks on my shoulders and bruises around my throat" I replied.**

"**I know and I apologise for that unreservedly" Larten said.**

"**I know you do, anyway I want to forget it and have some fun" I replied.**

"**Alright then I will give you fun" Larten said and we started to kiss. **

**I enjoyed myself and pretty soon I had forgotten about the Trials and I was lost in the moment, it was just Larten and I in our quarters enjoying the physical side of our blessed mateship. **

**I loved this part of being a vampiress and Larten always made it worthwhile. I laid back and let the sensations flood my body, it was more powerful than normal and it was so gentle. I loved it so much and I loved Larten even more. **

**When we had finished mating I slept well and I did not wake up until I was woken up by Larten getting up as the sun had set. I was hoarse but I felt OK and I had next to no marks on me except for the bite marks on my neck that I had asked for. **

"**That was fun Larten" I said.**

"**I hoped that you enjoyed my more gentle movements. Gentle but powerful is what I was aiming for and I think that I managed it" Larten replied as we kissed.**

"**You managed it alright" I coughed.**

"**You are a bit quiet, is your voice alright?" Larten asked.**

"**I have lost my voice I think. I have a sore throat and I am quite hoarse" I replied in a whisper.**

"**I told you not to be so vocal but if you cannot help it then this is the price for you telling me how good I am" Larten replied.**

"**I do not think that I was that bad but when you are lost in the moment you do not realise. I hope that we did not disturb anybody" I whispered with a sore throat.**

"**I hope so too but if we did disturb anyone then we will sort it out later. Right now you must prepare for your Trial. You have not got long before you face it" Larten said. **

"**I think that is a good idea but I must eat first and have a drink to try and recover my voice" I replied in a hoarse croak. **

"**Alright that is fair enough" Larten said.**

"**I had better get dressed first though. I cannot walk down into the halls in my night dress and slippers" I replied quietly.**

"**That would not be wise. You should wear something that is tight fitting so that it will not hinder you on the balance beam but not too tight fitting" Larten suggested.**

"**Well I can wear my Cirque Du Freak costume. It is tight fitting as I wear it on the high wire but it allows me to breathe and move around easily" I replied.**

"**That would work and it looks nice also but you may get some of the Generals staring at you as it is revealing" Larten said.**

"**So what Larten if they do stare at me, let them look at me but they will never touch me. It is fun to tease the Generals and they need some eye candy" I replied in my croaky voice.**

"**Alright if that is what you wish my love then so be it" Larten said. **

**So I put my Cirque Du Freak costume on and I went down to the halls for breakfast. I was starving but I had to clear my mind and think about my upcoming Trial. I scoffed a bowl of hot stew and I filled up on blood as I would need all of my strength for the Balance Beam. **

"**Morning Sarah that is a nice outfit" Vanez Blaine said to me.**

"**Thank you Vanez, it is what I wear to perform at the Cirque Du Freak. I am wearing it for my Trial later" I whispered.**

"**Why are you whispering? Do you not wish to be heard?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I have lost my voice Vanez. My throat hurts lots because of yesterday" I said.**

"**Where did you leave your voice?" Vanez laughed.**

"**Ha that is very funny Vanez" I replied sarcastically but I was still croaky.**

"**Isn't it just?" Vanez laughed as he nearly choked.**

"**Please have a bit of sense in that head of yours. You are refereeing my Trial later and you need to be on top form" I replied.**

"**I know but I am quite tired. I know exactly why you have lost your voice. I heard you begging Larten to make you come then when he did you screamed out you appreciation" Vanez said. **

"**If you heard me then the whole mountain would have heard about it as you are the biggest gossip around here" I croaked.**

"**I will not say anything but most of us heard you so they know already" Vanez replied.**

"**Oh well that was not my intention but I was lost in the moment and when it is that powerful you cannot help yourself. The sensation pulses through you and you can do nothing else" I explained.**

"**I know because my mate Suki is the same" Vanez replied as I went back to get another drink. **

"**I am sorry if I kept you awake Vanez. I hope that I did not disturb you too much" I said when I sat back on his table to finish my breakfast.**

"**You were fine Sarah. Suki kept me up anyway because she wanted to play cards all night" Vanez explained.**

"**Oh right well it is OK then but I hope that nobody else was disturbed" I replied as I left for the training halls to have another practice session before I took my Trial.**

**I was on my way to the training halls when I passed two vampires in one of the corridors talking about me.**

"**Is there a problem?" I asked.**

"**No we were just discussing your antics last night. We heard every word" One General said.**

"**Oh I am sorry. I did not mean to be so loud" I replied.**

"**It is actually quite funny because Gavnur was doing an impression of you earlier, it was rather good too" The other vampire replied.**

"**I will deal with him later believe me" I said with fire in my eyes. **

"**Well judging by your lack of voice this evening you will not be able to do much" The General laughed.**

"**I will get Larten to deal with it" I replied as I entered the training hall only to see Gavnur in there with Larten chatting about some hunting trip that they were planning. **

"**Larten the vampires outside have told me that Gavnur has done an impression of me based on last night when we were together. According to them it is quite good too" I said angrily.**

"**Is this true?" Larten asked Gavnur who had turned red.**

"**Yes Larten I was having a joke with Prince Vancha" Gavnur admitted.**

"**Is that a nice thing to do?" Larten asked.**

"**No it isn't but it was hilarious at the time. Even you would have laughed" Gavnur replied.**

"**So you think that taking the piss out of my blessed mate is hilarious do you?" Larten asked with a wicked look in his eyes.**

"**No but the impression was funny" Gavnur replied.**

"**Well if it is so funny let me see it" Larten said, he was clearly angry.**

"**Alright I will show you" Gavnur said then he proceeded to do an impression of me in a high pitched voice;**

"**Please let me come I beg you. Larten please" and then Gavnur screamed out as if he had just come.**

"**That was actually quite good Gavnur but it is not funny and you got the words wrong" I said.**

"**Gavnur that is not funny and it is quite offensive" Larten replied.**

"**I am sorry, I was only joking around. I meant no harm by it. By the way what did you say last night if I got the words wrong?" Gavnur asked.**

"**That is none of your business Gavnur you nosy, irritating, pitiful excuse for a General" I replied quietly.**

"**Look who is trying to talk! Sarah "The Screamer" Crepsley" Gavnur laughed out loud.**

"**That is quite enough Gavnur Sarah has a Trial to focus on as you know" Larten said sternly.**

"**Alright I apologise Sarah. I will not make impressions of you anymore if you don't want me too" Gavnur replied.**

"**It is fine Gavnur but keep it to yourself OK? If it gets out everybody will laugh at me" I replied.**

"**Alright I will not say anything and I will tell the others not to either" Gavnur replied.**

"**What do you mean by the others Gavnur?" I asked suspiciously.**

"**I told Prince Vancha who told the other Princes and they have told their friends I am sure" Gavnur replied.**

"**Gavnur it will go around the whole mountain now. How can I focus on my Trial if everyone is laughing at me for showing my mate how much that I love him?" I asked.**

"**I don't know Sarah. Maybe they could postpone it until it dies down" Gavnur suggested.**

"**Maybe if we explain the circumstances" I replied.**

"**Maybe the Princes will see fit to do that but it is unlikely" Larten said.**

"**We should ask them Larten as my Trial is due to begin soon" I said as I headed straight to the Prince's Dome.**

"**Look who it is fellow Princes. It is Sarah the screamer" Prince Darren announced when he saw me.**

"**Darren you will show the respect that is expected of you being in your position" Prince Mika replied.**

"**I apologise Sire" Prince Darren replied.**

"**How can we help you Sarah?" Prince Arrow asked.**

"**It is this whole thing about what Gavnur said. It has upset me and now I cannot focus on my Trial so I would like my Trial to be postponed until it dies down as it is not fair on me. It is in the rules of the Trials that somebody taking the Trials must be allowed to focus on his or her Trials without interruption" I quoted. **

"**Yes that is in the rules Sarah. Alright I will postpone your Trial for three more nights and I will instruct the heralds to tell the clan members not to mention it again" Prince Arrow replied.**

"**Thank you for this Sire. It is most appreciated" I replied in my croaky voice.**

"**At least we know one thing though" Prince Darren said.**

"**What is that Darren?" I asked.**

"**We know how much you love Larten and we know that he is very good to you as a blessed mate" Prince Darren replied.**

"**That is true Darren but now I must leave here and refocus my mind on the Trial ahead" I said as I left the Prince's Dome. **

"**Do you wish to go to our quarters and rest?" Larten asked me.**

"**No I am alright thank you. Anyway Arra's hawks need to go out" I replied.**

"**Very well Sarah but please join me later when you get back. I want to make the most of this free time" Larten replied. **

"**Alright then I swear that I will join you later" I said as we kissed before we parted. I left to take Arra's hawks out for a fly around and Larten went back to doing what he normally did when I was not around-worrying about me and watching the fights in the Halls of Sport for entertainment. **

**I took Arra's hawks out for some exercise and I also took my war horse out for a run as she had not been ridden in a while because I had been busy training. I loved riding and hawking, I felt like a sixteenth century noblewoman but I had promised Arra that I would take care of her beloved hawks and my horse was my responsibility so I had to take care of her.**

**I let my hawks fly free; I used a lure and a whistle to call them back to my fist when I wanted to. They were very well trained birds. I had no problems with them and my horse was quite happy to trot along with me whilst I was flying the hawks through the woods. I had a great time until I spotted a bear. I knew from experience how deadly bears could be so I turned around and galloped at top speed to get away before the bear spotted me and gave chase. **

"**C'mon then Diamond, Angel" I called out. Then I whistled for them and for a few seconds there was nothing then I looked up and my hawks were flying above me. **

"**C'mon then Diamond, Angel" I called out and they flew towards the mountain and landed on their perches that I had set up outside for them. **

**I was glad that my hawks were so well trained. It made my job a lot easier. I was surprised that they flew with me because hawks tended to fly for one person only but these two Harris hawks were different to my great relief. **

**I returned my war horse to the stables fed and watered her and then I locked my hawks into their aviary before I went back into the mountain in order to meet up with Larten just as I had promised. **

**I was very happy and chilled out when I returned to the mountain. My stress levels had fallen and I felt good. I was happy that I had this extra free time. I needed to escape once in a while as the mountain was smoky and it was quite depressing if you were in there all of the time. **

**It felt great to go out into the fresh air and moonlight. I sometimes wished that I could go out in to the sun but I could not so I managed. Anyway the moon and stars were much nicer than the sunlight that hurt my eyes and burned my skin and would kill me if I stayed out in it for too long. **

**I found Larten in the Halls of Sport. He was watching a duel between Vanez and Prince Darren on the Bars. Seba was refereeing the match and Larten was cheering for Prince Darren along with a few others but most vampires had got behind Vanez and were chanting his name out loudly when he made a good strike. **

**The match was soon over, I had taught Prince Darren a few of my nasty, tricky moves and Vanez was sent down to the ground with a thud, he was bleeding badly from a wound on his head that he had sustained from his bad landing. I took him to the medical wing, he got patched up and then he returned to his duties afterwards. **

**Vanez was impressed with Prince Darren's moves. He recognised some of them as my moves but the rest were Darren's own inventions. I borrowed and adapted some of Darren's moves and I used them as my own but normally I just used Arra's moves that I had changed the combinations to so that they were even more impressive than what they had been originally. **

**Nobody had beaten me or Darren on the Bars for a good while and that gave me an idea that after my Trials were over we could hold a Bars tournament where everybody could take part and have fun. **

**It would be done like a knock out contest where the best duellists would face each other until we were left with two finalists who would duel for a trophy of some kind. **

**There could be a runner up prize or a prize for the vampire who had the most wins or the most points. If a strike was worth three points and a combination was worth more points depending on how impressive it was etc. **

**I know that Arra would have loved it if she had been alive still. I spoke to Vanez about it when he had been patched up after his bad fall from the Bars.**

"**Sarah you have had such a brilliant idea. Why did I not think of it before?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I do not know but it will have to be organised and it will have to be after my Trials are completed or I cannot take part" I replied.**

"**Of course it will be after your Trials that way you can defend your title" Vanez replied.**

"**Oh yes I forgot about that Vanez my title of undefeated Bars champion" I replied and smiled at the thought of me being the undefeated Bars champion.**

**I had earned the title when I had defeated a run of specially selected opponents but I had to teach also as that was part of my duties because I was the champion. That is why I had taught Darren everything that I knew and some extra things that Arra had shown me. **

**I was so lucky and I often thought that being a vet would have been so boring compared to this. I felt honoured and so happy that I had met Larten and made a fantastic life for myself. I was a vampiress and my life had been hard but I had lots of money and my vampiric powers more than made up for the price that I had paid. **

**I was loved and everybody respected me which was good. It had not been easy though I had fought tooth and nail to get where I was. I had to fight, I had to duel and I had I had to go into battle but it was worth it just to curl up next to my beloved Larten every day when the sun rose and wake up next to him when the sun had set. **

**Now it was time for my Trial and the three nights had passed quickly. I was quite apprehensive but I knew that I had done everything that I could do to prepare myself for the Trial that nobody had ever passed except a very old vampire. He was so old that all the witnesses who had seen him do it had died long ago. **

**I was ready for this Trial. I had put my Cirque Du Freak costume on and I looked great. I was wearing this bright red glittery leotard that had been made to measure. I also had my hair done up and I had bare feet to help my balance as shoes were not advised in case they slipped but with bare feet I could grip on with my toes if it was necessary. **

"**Are you prepared Sarah?" I was asked by Prince Mika who was running this last Trial.**

"**I am as prepared now as what I was three nights ago Sire" I replied.**

"**Then may the luck of the vampires be with you in this last Trial Sarah. When you are ready mount the platform and begin your crossing" Prince Mika instructed me.**

"**As you wish Sire" I replied as I hopped up onto the first platform to begin my crossing. I was a little unsteady on my feet at the start of the Trial. I wobbled slightly but I managed to cross half of the balance beam and I jumped across onto the middle platform and as the sweeping arm came around I jumped over it and I landed on the second balance beam ready to cross it and pass the Trial.**

**I started on the second balance beam and I got half way across when I heard a cracking noise. I looked down to see that the second beam was about to split apart so I jumped up and forward but as I landed on the beam it snapped in half and I went crashing to the jagged rocks below. I heard the crowd gasp in shock. I felt something catch me as I was falling. The force of my fall had sent me and the person who had caught me to the ground in a heap. **

"**The beam cracked and snapped" I replied then I passed out.**

"**Sarah wake up. Sarah wake up" I heard as I came around from my confusion. **

"**Who is it?" I asked.**

"**It is me Sarah. I caught you but you bashed your head as we fell onto those jagged rocks" The voice replied.**

"**Who is "me"?" I asked confused.**

"**It is Larten of course. Are you OK Sarah?" Larten asked me.**

"**My head hurts. How do I know you?" I replied and asked still confused. **

"**I am your blessed mate remember?" Larten said.**

"**No I do not remember. Where is my mum? Is she at work?" I asked.**

"**No you are in the mountain. You left your parents ten years ago to join me here" Larten replied.**

"**Did I? I want to go home then. Take me home" I said. **

"**You are home Sarah. You are safe in the mountain in the medical wing" Larten explained.**

"**What mountain? I live in an English village" I replied angrily.**

"**You are in Vampire Mountain with the clan. You were taking your last Trial when the beam snapped and you went crashing to the ground. I caught you but you hit your head and now you cannot remember me" Larten explained.**

"**I wondered why I have a head ache. I really do not remember you, my last memory is of my mother tucking me into bed" I replied.**

"**Medic please come quickly. It is Sarah; she cannot remember who she is or who I am" Larten called out.**

**The medic came over and examined me.**

"**Sarah has amnesia. It means that she cannot remember anything due to her head injury. Over time the memory will come back but this will take a long time to heal" The medic said glumly.**

"**What the hell do we do in the mean time?" Larten asked.**

"**You must try and jog Sarah's memories. Take her to familiar places and look after her because there is no cure for amnesia" The medic replied.**

"**My blessed mate cannot even remember me. This is not what I had intended at all. It is my fault for landing badly" Larten said.**

"**Well there is nothing to be done. You should take her to the Prince's Dome and ask them what the ruling is on faulty equipment being used for a Trial. The Princes may rule in your favour" The medic advised.**

"**OK I will do that right away. Sarah we have to go to the Prince's Dome" Larten said as he helped me to my feet. I felt really dizzy and sick.**

**I could barely walk so Larten carried me there. **

"**Are you OK Sarah?" A guy asked me.**

"**I feel dizzy and sick. Where the hell am I? Who are you?" I asked.**

"**You are in the Prince's Dome. I am Prince Vancha remember?" **

"**No I do not remember. Why am I here?" I asked.**

"**You are a member of our clan. You live here Sarah" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**As you can see Sire Sarah has no memory of who she is or where she is. I understand that the second balance beam was rotten in the middle. What is the ruling on this?" Larten asked nervously.**

"**We have investigated and we have found that the responsibility lies with the person who is in charge of the Trial equipment and that was Samantha in this case. Samantha is responsible for the rotten beam that has caused Sarah's injury and memory loss" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Has Sarah passed her last Trial or not Sire?" Larten asked.**

"**Sarah would have passed if not for the rotten beam so we have ruled in her favour but it is Samantha's fault so she will be dealt with accordingly" Prince Arrow cut in.**

"**What do we do with Sarah in the mean time? Her memory loss is a huge problem" Larten asked.**

"**You as Sara's blessed mate you must do what you think is right. Sarah is your responsibility so you have to help her recover her memories if you can" Prince Vancha replied. **

"**Very well I will do my best" Larten replied as he picked me up and carried me off somewhere.**

"**Where are we going?" I asked Larten. I was very scared.**

"**We are going to our quarters. You need rest Sarah" Larten said.**

"**Do we share a room?" I asked.**

"**Yes we share a room because we are blessed mates. We have been for a long time now" Larten told me.**

"**What do you mean blessed mates? What on Earth is a blessed mate?" I asked.**

"**We are married in other words Sarah. You are my wife" Larten told me.**

"**Oh so that is why we share a room. That would make sense" I replied, I felt better now I knew that my husband was with me although I had no memory of him.**

"**Here we are. This is our room Sarah" Larten said as he unlocked the door and let us in. **

"**I was carried over to the bed and I lay down on it. I was tired and confused.**

"**I take it that we both sleep here?" I asked.**

"**Yes we sleep curled up in each other's arms every day when we go to bed" Larten said.**

"**That sounds nice. I think that I need to be held right now as I am freezing" I said.**

**So Larten held me close to him and he kept me warm whilst I slept. When I woke up I felt better and I some of my memories back but not all of them. At least I remembered who and where I was but I had to be reintroduced to everybody and reminded of whom they were.**

"**I like it when we curl up together Larten. Are you sure that we are husband and wife?" I asked.**

"**Of course we are. You can ask anybody for everybody here watched us take our vows of marriage" Larten replied.**

"**As long as I know I had to be sure" I replied.**

"**Look at your rings if you want to" Larten said.**

**I looked down and saw the rings on my finger and then I noticed the bracelet on my wrist.**

"**I see that I have nice rings, they are so pretty" I commented.**

"**I picked them out as they were the best that I could find for you. Our rings match" Larten said as I saw his ring was the same as mine but much bigger. **

"**What does a girl have to do to get a meal around here?" I asked.**

"**Follow me to the main hall where the food is" Larten said so I took his hand and followed him to the main hall for food and drink. **

"**Here you are, take whatever you want and feast" Larten said as I grabbed a bowl and filled it up with what must have been stew or casserole of some kind.**

**I tucked in and I soon felt better. I ate loads and I drunk a fair bit too. **

"**Sarah do you want some blood?" Larten asked me as he poured out a glassful for himself.**

"**Yuk that is gross. Why do you drink that? It will make you sick" I said.**

"**We are vampires Sarah, blood is vital to our survival we must drink it or we die" Larten replied. **

"**Are we really vampires?" I asked.**

"**Yes we are. Look at your fingertips" Larten said.**

**I looked at my fingertips and I noticed the scars running across them.**

"**Those scars are from where I blooded you. Every clan member is a vampire" Larten said.**

"**I think that I remember now. Yes I remember when I left England with you and travelled with that circus as your assistant" I replied.**

"**That is correct. We are members of the Cirque Du Freak and we put on an act with a spider whilst you do some kind of acrobatics" Larten explained.**

"**Why are we here?" I asked.**

"**You passed the Trials of Death and you were going to put on a Bars tournament but this injury has caused no end of trouble for you as you could not remember anything" Larten explained.**

"**At least I remember you Larten if nothing else" I said smiling.**

"**That was a relief for me. If you had forgotten who I was it would have been devastating as I love you so much" Larten replied before he kissed me in front of a whole load of other people.**

**Kissing me helped me to remember a few more things and it was pretty fun as well. I was a little embarrassed about the public kissing but I guess that it was acceptable as we were in a relationship. **

**I entered the Halls of Sport and I saw the Bars but I had quite forgotten what they were for so I asked.**

"**Hey what is that contraption?"**

"**Those are the Bars Sarah. Do not tell me that you do not remember duelling upon the Bars and winning" Larten said.**

"**I have a vague memory of it but it is all blurred. It is like I know what to do but I cannot quite remember how to do it" I replied.**

"**Well you will have to remember at some point, if you duelled it may jog your memory" Larten explained.**

"**Is that a challenge?" I asked with a determined look in my eyes.**

"**Yes it is. I challenge you to a duel upon the Bars. Do you accept my challenge?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes I accept but only to help me remember what I have forgotten" I replied.**

**So I stepped upon the Bars with my staff (at least I thought it was my staff as it had my name on it) I could not remember what to do or how to start but Larten helped me to remember and soon my memory of duelling had come back and I remembered how good I was and how fun it was. I looked up and saw my name carved into the rock next to another name. **

"**Who is Arra?" I asked as I was practicing my strikes. **

"**Arra was a friend of yours who died in battle. You duelled her and it was a draw. I was also a very good friend of Arra's" Larten explained.**

"**How long ago did Arra die?" I asked.**

"**Six years, one hundred and four days, five hours, twenty minutes, and forty two seconds ago" Larten replied.**

"**That is very precise Larten. It is almost as if you have been counting down the nights until you die or something. Is it that you loved her and you miss her so much that you remember the exact moment that Arra left you?" I asked intrigued.**

"**You really do not remember anything do you Sarah? I loved Arra more than anything in this life and when she left this world I was inconsolable but I have you and I promised Arra that I would be good to you and that nothing would ever harm you" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right well that makes sense and anyway I think that I am beginning to remember now" I said.**

"**That is good. What do you remember?" Larten asked me.**

"**I remember ice dancing and I remember working at the Cirque Du Freak and I think that I remember duelling" I explained.**

"**That is an improvement but you should take it easy for a few nights until you can remember everything" Larten said.**

"**I agree as many of my memories are all hazy and confusing. Did I really live in a sewer?" I asked puzzled.**

"**Yes you lived in a sewer for many weeks before I rescued you, then you went undercover and you killed every vampaneze who was living by poisoning them all" Larten explained.**

"**Did I really do that?" I asked.**

"**Yes and the clan hailed you as a very brave and very smart vampiress to think of and pull off such a cunning plan" Larten explained.**

"**I remember somebody called George and somebody called Steve Leopard, they were evil if I remember rightly but they seemed to be nice to me" I told Larten. **

"**They were the two vampaneze leaders. You joined George's troupe and then you pretended to mate with Steve Leopard so that he would trust you and then when you had his and the troupe's trust you killed them all without fail" Larten explained.**

"**I remember a huge rat who was named Aeris and I remember sleeping in the sewers and the only thing that I had to remind me of you was your cloak" I replied.**

"**I gave it to you so that you would not miss me as much because we missed each other terribly and although we did see each other it was hard to arrange. One night I flitted for three hours straight so that I could see you for a brief time before you had to return to the sewers" Larten said.**

"**I remember now. You were with somebody else and he distracted me whilst you arrived" I said.**

"**That is right. Now do you remember who you are and how important you are to us?" Larten asked.**

"**Of course I remember now. How could I forget everything? My head feels better but it needs healing up some more" I said.**

"**Oh alright come with me Sarah" Larten said and I followed him to our quarters.**

"**I will try and heal this wound up for you. Keep still whilst I try" Larten said as I stood up and still. Larten pulled the bandage off and he removed the patch that had covered the wound to help it heal. Larten washed it out with warm water and it was not that bad, it was bruised but the actual wound was not that big once all of the dried blood had been washed away. Larten used his spit to heal the wound. It healed quite quickly but the bruise was still there. **

"**There that is better" Larten said.**

"**Thank you" I said as I admired my new scar in the mirror. It was just another mark that had a story behind it. **

"**I have been injured so many times. I have lots of scars all over my body and I will have to wear clothing that covers them up as some of them are quite large" I said.**

"**If that is your wish but I do not mind them. You have seen my many scars and the one on my face is the most famous as you know" Larten said.**

"**The scar on your face is what people associate you with the most followed by the scars on your back and chest from battle and from when you were marked by your prior mates" I replied. **

"**Yes but the battle scars show my skills as a fighter and the other scars remind me of my youth when I was less than a gentleman" Larten said, he coughed as he did so. **

"**I know all about your youth Larten. I can name everybody that you have ever been with and that is not counting all of the one night stands" I said.**

"**I cannot even remember most of the ladies that I slept with but a few stick in my mind for different reasons. I remember this one lady who loved me deeply but I was not interested in her. To prove her love for me she jumped in front of a steam train, she would have been killed but I saved her just in time and she said that by saving her I had proved that I cared or I would have let her die" Larten said.**

"**Go on tell me more" I said.**

"**Well after the steam train incident this young lady was in shock at how I had saved her as she did not know about me being a vampire. I told her that I was a magician with certain powers. Anyway after I saved this girl she led me to her place where she stayed and it was a tip. **

**The roof had come down and most of the walls were cracked but she liked it there. The only thing that this lady owned was a cat and a small mattress that she slept on. This lady begged me to stay with her and she pleaded with me to give her a better life than what she had already had so I reluctantly agreed. **

**I felt sorry for her as she was living in squalor and I knew that I had the power to rescue her so I did. I gave in to her against my better judgement and I blooded her. She screamed out as it hurt her so badly but she managed to cope with it and then we travelled together for a while. **

**I knew that this lady loved me but I did not feel the same so I tried to tell her but she would have none of it and we fought like bat and moth as a result. Eventually I let her have her wish and it turned out to be one of the best nights that I have ever had. **

**It taught me not to judge somebody on looks alone. This lady was killed in a battle with vampaneze who had tracked us to our home, we fought but there were too many of them and she was killed. I killed as many as I could before I flitted and escaped their poisoned blades. The lady in this tale was named Helena and although she was young she had been born partially blind and her face was scarred from smallpox" Larten finished.**

"**Well that was a story and a half Larten. I can see that you do not mind my scars because you love who I am and not what I look like" I replied. **

"**That is true. Without you I would be lost and if you had not have helped me I never would have got over Arra's passing and I would probably be dead or worse" Larten explained.**

"**I see. It is just as well that I am here then although we do not always get along and we fight but no more than anybody else" I said.**

"**We fight rarely and it is always over stupid things that are normally inconsequential but if we believe in it then we tend to try and get it that way no matter what it takes" Larten explained.**

"**Well take our quarters for example when we were decorating you wanted all of your weapons and trophies on display but I wanted to put my pictures up instead and we fought for ages until we came up with a compromise that allowed us to both get what we wanted and the same went for the wall colours but we worked it out in the end" I said.**

"**Yes we did work it out eventually but we should not have fought in the first place as it was such a petty thing but now you would never tell" Larten replied. **

"**That is why I love you so much. You nearly always give in to me and when you put your foot down it normally works out for the best. I respect your decisions but they are not always right and if I think that you have made a mistake then I will be the first to tell you" I explained.**

"**I know, I have to put up with you finding fault with lots of things but if you did not spot it then we could have ended up in trouble so I am grateful but I do not always know how to show it" Larten admitted.**

"**Anyway I am shattered. It is time to turn in before I start organising that Bars tournament tomorrow" I said.**

"**We have a good hour before sunrise so if you want to go out before the sun comes up feel free. In fact we could both go out and have some fun as it were" Larten said.**

"**What are you suggesting?" I asked nervously.**

"**Going out and watching the sunrise from the top of the mountain. You get a spectacular view up there before the sun gets too strong" Larten suggested.**

"**That would be nice Larten as it has been a long time since I heard the dawn chorus and watched the sunrise. The colours will be so much more intense with our enhanced vision and I want to see what the mountain looks like in the light as I have only seen it at night" I said.**

"**Alright then grab your coat and we will go. It is a fair walk to the top of the mountain as we are only about three quarters of the way up" Larten explained as we used our super speed to go to the main entrance in seconds.**

"**Where are you going?" One of the guards asked us.**

"**Up to the top of the mountain to watch the sunrise and listen to the dawn chorus" I said.**

"**Try not to get too badly burned up there as the sun is very strong on the top of the mountain that is why we are where we are" The guard said.**

"**Thank you but we will be OK will we not Larten?" I asked.**

"**We will be fine and we will be back in the mountain before the sun gets too high in the sky" Larten said.**

"**Alright then go on ahead and enjoy it" The guard said.**

**So we left the halls and we headed straight up to the top of the mountain. The path was quite steep and slippery with ice but it was a good climb and it would get you fit if you climbed up to the top every day. **

"**Come on slow coach" I called out to Larten who was a few feet behind me.**

"**It appears that I am not as young as I used to be but I will show you how much strength is in this body" Larten said as he rushed me, scooped me up and flitted to the top just in time to see the sun light peer through the clouds and the evening's stars disappear but a planet or two was still visible. **

"**Wow what a view. I had never realised how high this mountain actually is. The light is glorious and it is a shame that we cannot be out in it for too long" I said.**

"**It is a good view from up here. That is why many vampires ask that their ashes are scattered up here so that they may be in the sun once more before they go on to Paradise" Larten explained.**

"**That would make sense. I like it up here the view is amazing" I said as I looked around at the valleys and fields down below. We had a lot of woodland also and it felt good to step out into the sun even if it was not for too long. I had sun glasses on but I could still see all of the colours and I could not remember when I had last seen a view like this. **

"**I took Arra up here once and as she had such pale skin she burned really quickly but you seem OK. Arra made me swear that she and I would never go out in the sun again as she hated being burned so badly. I did however scatter Arra's ashes up here well some of them anyway as I kept some and Darryl had some that he put into the woods I believe and the rest we kept as Arra had said that we could keep some of her if we wanted to" Larten said. **

"**Oh right that was nice of her, is that why you keep that pot on the bedside desk? I never looked in it before I assumed it was some kind of jewellery or something that you did not want me to see or you would have already shown me" I asked.**

"**The pot which you refer to is what Arra's ashes are in and I never showed you in case you did not want Arra in our room next to our bed" Larten explained.**

"**That is so like you. You worry so much about my feelings that you put yours aside. Of course I do not mind because that is what Arra said that you could do and anyway why would I mind? I miss Arra as much as you do and I wish that I could have got to know her better. We had better go in now as it is getting really bright now" I said.**

"**I am glad that you think like that" Larten said.**

"**I feel better now that I know that Arra is closer to me than what I thought she was" I said. **

"**I am sorry that I did not tell you sooner Sarah. I did not wish to upset you after everything that you have gone through so far this year not with your Trials and everything" Larten replied. **

"**That is fair enough Larten I can understand that. You really do care about me and for that I will be forever grateful" I said.**

"**Of course I bloody care about you Sarah. I am just as in love with you now as what I was when we met for the first time. I saw you and thought that you were absolutely stunning. I was allured by your tiny frame and your eyes, I knew that you were the one and I was determined to make you mine forever" Larten said. **

"**Well you stole my heart and when you took my innocence on the train it was the most painful but exciting experience that I had ever experienced apart from when you blooded me and when I gave birth" I said and then I continued to say;**

"**I am so happy that it was you and not anybody else who took my innocence. I mean just look at where I am now and it is all because of you Larten. I am just as in love with you as what you are with me" **

**Larten coughed and then we heard a knock on our door. I answered it and it was Vanez.**

"**Hi Vanez it is a bit late for you to be awake is it not?" I asked.**

"**Yes but I wanted to discuss this tournament with you. I am so excited about refereeing a major tournament. I will enter the tournament too and when I fight Seba will referee and if we face each other then one of the Princes will referee the match" Vanez said. **

"**That is fine by me Vanez but I am shattered. I need my sleep so that I can plan this tournament because I want it to be good and I have decided that we will be duelling for the Arra Sails Memorial Trophy as well as two other trophies" I explained. **

"**That is a great idea. Do you want a cup to be the trophy?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I thought about having a men's tournament for a cup, a ladies tournament for a tiara and a mixed tournament for the memorial cup" I suggested.**

"**That would work but we only have twelve vampiresses and so many more males. The ladies matches will be over way sooner than the men's matches" Vanez explained.**

"**That is why we are having a mixed tournament. The best males and the best females will face each other in a final duel at the end when the other tournaments are over. I will do a runner up cup for the runners up of all three tournaments. It will get easier when the challenge board is up" I replied. **

"**Oh right I will let you sort it out as you seem to know what you are doing" Vanez said as he left.**


	23. The Bars Tournament

**Chapter 23 the Bars Tournament**

**The news of the tournament leaked out and it spread like wild fire. Suddenly the Halls of Sport was overrun by vampires who were queuing to get on the Bars and train. Not every vampire would be taking part, only those who got through the heats would take part in the actual tournament. **

**It was the only way that we could do it because there had been an influx of newbies and they had increased our numbers so that we had a lot more vampires in the mountain than what there had been when I came up with the idea of the tournament. **

**It was going to take a lot of organising and the fact that I had to get a tiara and six trophies made was going to keep me occupied. They all had to be engraved and ordered in advance so that they were ready to hand out on the presentation night. **

**I needed three large cups and three smaller cups that would be engraved with the winning vampire's name and the tiara had to have a message on it also that said something like;**

"**Ladies Bars Tournament Champion 2011-2012" followed by their name. The cups would say something similar except the big memorial trophy had to have something special written on it like;**

"**This memorial cup is given to…in memory of Arra Sails as a reward for being the 2011-2012 Bars Champion" I think that would suffice but it had to be organised and it was not cheap either.**

"**How are the preparations coming on Sarah?" Vanez asked me.**

"**I have organised the order of the heats. We start tomorrow evening with the first match. All of the names were picked out at random and your first match is against my beloved Larten. The board is up with all of the challengers on it so if you win you will face the winner of the third match between Seba and Prince Vancha and so on until we get down to the actual tournament matches" I explained. **

"**That sounds simple enough. If I win I am in the tournament and if I lose I am out" Vanez said.**

"**Basically yes that is how it works and then the same random draws will be done again to decide who duels who in the actual cup matches like football" I finished.**

"**Alright then I will look forward to my first match and I will not make it easy for Larten you understand?" Vanez said.**

"**Larten will slaughter you anyway so you can go back to your refereeing duties soon enough" I replied with a grin.**

"**Well we will see about that" Vanez said as he left to referee a training match.**

**I had picked Amira as my first duel. Amira was Gavnur's mate and although she was a lovely woman she was not one for fighting. Gavnur had been giving her some training but Amira was not a Bars duellist. Amira's skills were in the medical wing and on the battle field but the Bars was an alien environment to her although she tried hard to get it right. **

**The time for the first duel came and it was Larten against Vanez and then it was me against Amira then it was Prince Darren against Prince Mika and Seba against Prince Vancha. I was looking forward to cheering for my mate and I was right underneath the Bars looking up shouting my head off in support for Larten just as he had been when he cheered for me in the Trials. **

"**Go on Larten. Teach Vanez why you are here" I called out.**

**Then I heard a big cheer for Vanez and the vampires put their hands up in a sort of Mexican wave but it was not quite the same. **

"**Go on Vanez you can do this. Just focus and remember to block" I heard Vanez's mate call out.**

"**Larten show no mercy and use the moves that I showed you yesterday to win cleanly" I said in response.**

"**Do not listen Vanez Sarah is bluffing. You can do this I know you can. It is time to bring Larten down a peg or two" I heard some General shout. **

"**Duellists ready?" Seba asked as he was refereeing.**

"**Ready" Vanez and Larten said in unison.**

"**Then salute and begin" Seba said.**

**Larten and Vanez knocked their staves together and then the match began. Larten was pumped and baying for blood. He always performed well when I was watching. Vanez got a couple of shots in but Larten was just too quick and he made mincemeat of Vanez with a wicked double attack that made Vanez fall off of the Bars with two broken ribs and a fractured eye socket.**

"**Well done my love. A fine victory" I said.**

"**Thank you Sarah but now it is your turn to duel against Amira. Gavnur has given her some private instruction. Amira will not be an easy target to beat but you have come through a lot worse so go for it up there and fight with honour" Larten replied. **

"**I will do what I usually do and I will win with any luck" I said.**

"**Alright then I will be right here watching you" Larten said in reply.**

"**Do not forget to cheer for me as it is your support that gets me through each duel" I explained.**

"**Sarah it is time to duel. Are you prepared?" Prince Darren asked as he was refereeing this match whilst Vanez had his wounds seen to. **

"**I am ready to duel but where is Amira?" I asked.**

"**Amira is in the loo. She is quite scared so she is dealing with her nerves" I heard Suki say from behind me.**

"**Oh right well I will wait for her and if the next couple want to duel in the meantime they can" I said.**

"**Sarah let us have a quick sparring match whilst we wait" Larten suggested.**

"**Alright that would be good entertainment for the crowd" I replied.**

**So Larten and I hopped on the Bars and we stood apart ready to duel. **

"**Ladies and gentlemen for your entertainment Larten and I will have a quick sparring match whilst we are waiting for Amira to arrive" I announced.**

**At this point the whole crowd split into two halves almost, most were on my side but a few were shouting out Larten's name in support. **

**We knocked our staves together and then the match began. It was not a proper match but it provided some entertainment for the waiting duellists.**

**I made a few good strikes and I got in a nasty combo move but Larten countered and he came back at me and I finished it off with one of my aerial strikes that sent Larten off balance before I made the final killer blow and sent Larten to the ground. **

**Larten landed on his feet and he jumped straight back onto the Bars with a single move so that he could congratulate me as that was the custom and then Amira arrived so Larten left the Bars and Amira took his place.**

"**Go for it Sarah. You can do this" I heard Larten call out.**

"**I will do my best Larten you can be assured of that" I called back.**

"**Come on everybody cheer for my blessed mate" Larten shouted out.**

"**No cheer for my mate" Gavnur said and once again the crowds split into two halves with our respective mates at the front leading the cheering. **

"**Duellists ready?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**Yes" I said.**

"**Let's do this thing" Amira said in response.**

"**Then salute and begin" Prince Darren said.**

**So the duel started and Amira came at me with a series of fast strikes that I had not been expecting. I blocked the first three and then I dodged the rest. I countered and Amira took some serious punishment for I was not about to make this duel easy for her. Amira came back and she hit me hard but I hit harder and my strikes were always on target but Amira's were a bit wobbly. **

**I flipped up and over Amira, I rounded on her and whacked her back as hard as I could, she doubled over and dropped to her knees so I finished it off with another hard whack on Amira's head. Then she fell flat on the Bars and that was it. I had won and Amira was knocked out.**

"**That was a hard hit Sarah. Amira is knocked out and I only hope that the damage is not serious" Gavnur said as he rushed forward to carry his unconscious mate to the medical wing.**

"**That is the risk that you take when you are on the Bars" I said as Larten hoisted me up and spun me around in celebration of my victory.**

"**I can see why Amira was scared to face me. I hope that she is OK Larten" I said. **

"**You knocked her out but she will be OK once her head has been seen to. You fractured her skull Sarah" Gavnur told me later on that night.**

"**I am so sorry Gavnur I did not mean for it to be that hard. I only wanted to win the duel not smash Amira's skull in" I said tearfully.**

"**You do not need to apologise you were only duelling normally and as Larten said earlier you made a clean strike and you won fairly. You did nothing wrong Sarah" Gavnur continued.**

"**Well I will of course apologise to Amira for being so hard on her. I hope that she will heal up OK" I said.**

"**Amira will be fine. She will have a mark on her head but she will recover like Seba did so now you must focus on the tournament and do not worry about your opponents" Gavnur replied. **

"**Alright I will do that. Thank you for being so lenient on me Gavnur, I thought that you would be baying for my blood in revenge but you can see that what I did was OK and it was not intended" I said. **

"**I know that Sarah you were just trying to earn your place in the tournament and you have done that. Anyway the next duel is about to start" Gavnur said so I stood back to watch the next duel between Prince Darren and Prince Mika.**

**I stood at the front as I was Darren's mentor's blessed mate and a good friend of his. I stood next to Larten and we held up the banner that we had made that said "Darren for the men's Bars Champion" with pictures of him fighting and a list of defeated opponents. **

"**Thank you for the banner it is great" Prince Darren called down to us. **

"**That is Ok. We thought that you could do with some support from us as we are your closest clan members" I replied as Prince Darren prepared to fight Prince Mika. This duel was bloody and it was vicious as neither Prince would surrender. They had to look strong in front of the Clan as they were the clan's leaders. **

"**Enough!" Prince Vancha shouted as he was refereeing the duel.**

"**Prince Darren and Prince Mika both stopped and they faced each other both bleeding and battered from the long fight. **

"**Hey why did you stop the fight?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**I stopped the fight because you are both very good. There is no point beating each other to a pulp so I have decided to put you both through" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**That is fair enough. I think that we have both earned our place in the tournament" Prince Mika said as he spat blood out of his mouth he had lost a tooth in the duel from a nasty side swipe and now he was bleeding from his mouth and gums.**

**Darren on the other hand had received a lot of punishment to his chest and back but the rest of him was OK if a bit bruised.**

"**Well done to both of you. I will see you in the next round" I said.**

"**Yes of course. We had better go and catch up with our duties now" Prince Darren said.**

"**You should be patched up first. I have some ointment that is good for bruising. I have had to use it frequently" I explained.**

"**Alright I will get patched up Sarah. I will come to your quarters later so that you can apply the ointment" Prince said.**

"**Are you OK Sire?" I asked Prince Mika.**

"**It is only a tooth. I am fine but it was a great duel and I enjoyed it" Prince Mika replied as he and Prince Darren both left to catch up on their Prince's duties. **

**After that I watched Seba's duel against Prince Vancha which I refereed. It was another long match and it was pretty brutal but I had been ordered by Prince Vancha not to stop it so I had to let it go on until with a final, heavy and accurate blow Prince Vancha finished off Seba who held his hands up in surrender before he hopped off the Bars to deal with his injuries which were quite serious but not life threatening. **

**With the first four preliminary matches out of the way it was time for the next four duels which were Suki against Raven, Kitty against Hattie, Sophia against Mari and Emma against Alison who were both new vampiresses to the clan as they had only been here for a couple of months.**

**It was fun to watch the ladies duel as they were so much more elegant and they were not as violent as the men's duels but the match against Prince Arrow and Kitty was pretty rough. **

**Kitty had not had much experience. She was very new to the Clan and she had only joined because she had a crush on a guy in her evening class who had turned out to be a vampire. **

**Kitty did her best but Prince Arrow made mincemeat of her and she fell off and landed into the arms of Larten who had caught her as she was very injured. **

**Kitty was out but Raven got through and so did Mari but the match between Emma and Alison was cancelled because neither of the two vampiresses knew what to do so I postponed the match until they could be trained up a bit to make it fair.**

**The tournament was going great and it provided some wicked entertainment for the clan. I was looking forward to the second round where I would face the winner out of Raven and Emma. The match order was confusing but it made sense on the board. We had to change it because both Prince Darren and Prince Mika had got through but that was OK. We decided that they had to face each other again in round two of the men's tournament so that one of them would go through to the quarter finals. **

**I was kept busy with the tournament and it was so much fun to watch. Eventually we got down to the second round ladies matches that were as follows; Emma against Raven, myself against Laura, and Hattie against Mari. **

**This was the ladies tournament the men's tournament was different as so too was the mixed tournament. There was a different order for both and the matches were picked out at random and if you were out of one tournament you might still be in the other one. **

**The ladies matches were so good. I knocked Laura off of the Bars without much effort. It was Laura's first duel so I did not do anything too vicious or nasty but I beat her easily by performing a double side swipe that knocked her over the edge of the Bars. **

**Then it was time for the second round men's matches which were Larten against Prince Mika, Gavnur against Prince Darren, Prince Arrow against Michael, and Peter against James. **

**Finally we got down to the mixed matches which were Larten against Emma, Mari against Prince Darren, Laura against Seba and Vanez against Suki, Cassie against Peter, Tabitha against Michael and finally Helen against Tom. **

**It was getting hard to keep track of who was in what tournament so we made a separate list of who was left in each tournament and it looked like this:**

**Men's Quarter finalists:**

**Larten,**

**Prince Darren,**

**Prince Vancha,**

**Peter,**

**Prince Arrow,**

**Tom (a new member of the clan)**

**Ladies Quarter finalists:**

**Sarah (Tournament Organiser)**

**Hattie,**

**Raven,**

**Tabitha,**

**Helen,**

**Cassie**

**Mixed Quarter finalists:**

**Larten,**

**Prince Darren,**

**Seba,**

**Suki,**

**Tabitha,**

**Peter,**

**Helen,**

**Vanez**

**And that was it. Many vampires had retired due to injury and the rest had too much to do as it was not easy running a mountain. **

**It was a lot simpler now that we had got down the quarter finals. There were so many less vampires the charts were way easier to understand than what they had been. **

**The men would have their quarter finals first and the matches were as follows:**

**Larten VS Peter**

**Prince Darren VS Tom**

**Prince Vancha VS Prince Arrow**

**And then the ladies matches were:**

**Myself VS Raven,**

**Hattie VS Helen,**

**Cassie VS Tabitha**

**And finally the mixed matches were as follows:**

**Larten VS Suki,**

**Helen VS Seba,**

**Prince Darren VS Vanez,**

**Tabitha VS Peter**

**The winners of these matches would enter the semi-finals and then the finals would be against the last few standing. It was scary to think that I actually had a chance of winning and so did Larten and it was nice to have so many new vampires that got through as it would have been boring to have too many of our oldest clan members who were left in the tournament. All I knew was that the quarter finals would be great. **

**I was looking forward to watching Larten's matches and as for my own match it was going to be exciting. I had a feeling that I was going to win but it was not guaranteed. **

**Larten had survived and he had got through some of the toughest duels, he had made mincemeat out of many Generals who had not been beaten for a while. **

**It was so good to hold this kind of tournament and the trophies had finally arrived and they were on display ready for the presentation night when the winners would claim their prizes. **

**The next matches were about to take place so I took my position at the front of the Bars in the brand new duellist's box that had been built. It was a separate area that had seats in it and the duellists could watch from it and wait inside it until it was their turn to duel. The ladies matches were first and that meant that it was my time to duel Raven for a place in the semi-finals.**

**I hopped onto the Bars with my brand new staff as my other one had snapped in a previous duel. My new staff had been made for me to specific specifications as it was measured in balance with my body and it had very little weight.**

**I had a talk with Larten before my duel as neither of us had spent much if any time together as I had been so busy organising the duel lists and Larten had some other duties to attend to so it was nice to finally have a conversation.**

"**Finally we can talk, it has been ages since we last had a proper chat" I said.**

"**Yes you have really taken this duel tournament seriously and that is great but it has kind of separated us as neither of us has spoken much to one another unless it was about a duel related matter" Larten said. **

"**I know. It is my fault for not getting anybody to help me. I have organised and ran the whole thing myself so I have put you to the back of my mind whilst I have been busy organising this thing. I am sorry" I replied.**

"**It is quite alright. I am proud of you for doing so much and doing so well yourself. We are both in to the next round and although it may been seen as annoying by some vampires if we both win we can put our trophies up on the shelf above our bed in our quarters. Of course you can always wear the tiara if you want to just to remind people of your win" Larten said.**

"**Would that not be boastful? To rub it in like that?" I asked.**

"**Maybe but if you win a tournament then you are entitled to show off your prize" Larten replied.**

"**Fair enough" I said.**

"**We have to win first though" Larten reminded me.**

"**I know, I am not being complacent. I know what is at stake here" I said.**

"**As long as you are aware of that fact it is OK. Anyway we had better make the most of this time as we are the only ones in here and we may not be alone again for a while yet" Larten said.**

"**What did you have in mind my love?" I asked grinning.**

"**We could some fun like we used to do in here. Do you remember that night when we broke in and made full use of the wrestling ring?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes I do and you made such a mess in here and rather a lot of noise if I remember rightly" I commented.**

"**It was a good time though was it not? You enjoyed it as much as I did so why complain?" Larten asked.**

"**I enjoyed it and I am not complaining I just do not want to get balled out by Vanez again as he was furious last time" I said.**

"**That was before we were blessed mates and anyway Vanez has done it himself with his mate. He is such a hypocrite" Larten said.**

"**Oh well if you put it like that then alright. I am up for it anyway as I have been for a while now but I have not had the time to ask you to fix it for me" I replied as I stripped off my duellists clothes and lay down inside the wrestling ring. I would not surrender easily but it would be fun to have a wrestling match and then mate afterwards. **

**As I had not been in the ring since I had taken my second Trial I had to honour Darryl as he had died in the ring. I did this by saying a vampire's prayer and then I asked Darryl to forgive me for my actions on that fateful night. With that out of the way I was ready to wrestle Larten and that would lead to us mating in the ring or so I thought. **

**Larten did not make it easy for me, we fought quite roughly with each other for half an hour or so before I eventually let Larten have his way with me. It was pretty good too and I enjoyed it. Then we jumped up on to the swinging ropes and Larten joined me. We swung around on the ropes and used them to support our weight whilst we did some kind of balancing act that involved us mating on them too. **

**It was going pretty well and had been enjoying it so much but I knew better than to scream. I had been working on controlling my noise levels and it was working. We were so into our session that we did not hear anybody coming so when a load of drunken Generals walked in and saw us doing what we were doing it was a rather awkward situation and to top it off Seba was with them as he had been celebrating his friend's birthday, he was as drunk as the rest but not even he wanted to see his ex-assistant in the act of mateship. **

"**Larten what the hell are you doing?" Seba said angrily and it was at this point that we realised that we had an audience.**

"**We were just spending some quality time together" Larten said when we had untangled ourselves.**

"**I can see that. Have you seen this place Larten? It is filthy. You have got your fluids everywhere you need to learn to control yourself" Seba said even more angrily.**

"**I am sorry Seba but you are no longer my mentor and there is no law that says what we have done is wrong" Larten said.**

"**As for you Sarah I am shocked that you would go along with such an act" Seba chastised me.**

"**I cannot see what the problem was. If I choose to mate with my blessed mate in here that is my decision and no one else's. We have permission" I explained **

"**Oh do you? Who has given you permission?" Seba asked.**

"**We asked Prince Mika and he said it was fine as long as we cleared up afterwards" I continued.**

"**Well that is different. I am too drunk to care but it was not a pleasant thing to walk in on Larten. Next time put a sign on the door or something" Seba said.**

"**We were nearly finished anyway when you disrupted us. We were trying out a few new positions to liven up our mateship" Larten said.**

"**Well we will leave you to clean up this mess. The ring is the worst there is blood as well as other stuff. You were pretty rough to cause this damage" Seba said as he saw the broken wrestling ring fence and the rope that was on the floor. **

"**I will fix it Seba" Larten said as Seba left us alone to clean up our mess (but not before we finished our interrupted session!)**

"**Where were we?" I asked.**

"**On that rope and you were rocking me. I nearly came too before we were walked in on" Larten said as he got back on the rope.**

**I climbed back onto the rope and I finished of what I was doing to Larten before we got dressed and cleaned up our mess. Meanwhile back in the main hall Seba was chatting to Vanez.**

"**Hey Seba are you up for a match in the Halls of Sport?" Vanez asked.**

"**There are two problems with that though I would like to have a match with you. One I am drunk and that would be an unfair advantage and I have just come from the Halls of Sport and trust me when I say do not go in there" Seba said.**

"**Can you tell me why Seba?" Vanez asked. **

"**Because I just came from there and it is a mess in there. Larten and Sarah were in there alone and well I walked in on their session" Seba said.**

"**You mean that they were in there mating?" Vanez asked.**

"**Yes they used the wrestling ring and broke it and then they went on those ropes and used those to have some more fun" Seba explained.**

"**I see. I guess a match is out of the question until the equipment has been washed down and mended" Vanez said.**

"**Yes unless you want to watch two blessed mates at it like a pair of wild animals. They were quite rough with each other too. There is a fair amount of blood in there" Seba said. **

"**Oh well I had better not go in there then but as usual I will be left to clean up the aftermath of their fun. Who would want to be the Games Master eh?" Vanez asked himself.**

**Meanwhile back in the Halls of Sport I was enjoying finishing what I had started and how I had missed Larten and his skills. My whole body was in overdrive and I was having such a good time that I forgot everything and I focussed on rewarding Larten because he had been so good to me and this particular session was so much fun. **

**Larten wanted to finish off and clean up but I begged for more and eventually he gave in to my demands for more fun.**

"**Maybe we should finish here and retire to our quarters" Larten said.**

"**Why should we? I love it here with all of the equipment" I said in reply.**

"**We must clean up though. Have you seen it in here? I went overboard with my thrusts I think" Larten said.**

"**That was only because I got you so hot first with my routine on the ropes" I replied.**

"**Yes but even so I should have controlled it more however it was worth it. That was a good session for both of us" Larten replied as he cleaned up as much as he could.**

"**I agree. We both needed that but now I want to feed badly. I am so thirsty and tired I have no energy left" I said.**

"**We can feed in a minute if you want to. We must clean up though as it is common courtesy" Larten said sternly.**

"**Alright I will help you but I am very sore. I doubt that I could cope with another session" I replied as I grabbed a cloth and started cleaning too. **

**Soon enough the Halls of Sport were cleaned up and if not for the broken equipment and the smell you would not have known that two blessed mates had mated in there.**

**I returned to our quarters when I had finished cleaning and I grabbed my wash bag as I was desperate for a shower. I was covered in blood and other stuff and I needed to get it off of my clothes before it stained. **

**The blood had come from both of us when we had been wrestling in the ring. We had scratched and bitten each other whilst we were fighting as it was a part of it. I had scratches on my back and I had a gash on my head from where I had been slammed onto the ground hard but apart from that I was OK. I was very tingly still and I had butterflies in my stomach as an after effect of having Larten inside me. **

**I took my clothes off and I jumped under the waterfall that acted as a shower and I let the freezing cold water run over my body before I washed it with a flannel and some shower gel that I had taken from a hotel that I had stayed at. **

**I washed quickly under the icy water and I dried myself off. I was clean but I was cold and I had to sit by a fire to get warm again as it was damn cold under that waterfall. **

**I was by the fireplace when I had a few vampires come over to me and they were not that happy with me. **

"**What seems to be the problem?" I asked.**

"**It is your group's turn to hunt and you have not been yet. We are all hungry" one General said. **

"**I apologise. I forgot that it was my turn. I thought that it was Seba's turn. I will go now if you like and I will bring back something special" I said as I got up out of the armchair and stretched myself.**

"**That is fine if it was a genuine error but if you could go now as we all need a good meal" The General said in response.**

**I left immediately and prepared to go hunting. My team was already waiting for me so we left in a hurry to start raiding the woods for our clan's dinner.**

**I lead the gang of hunters. We split up into two groups, one group had the pack of wolves following them and I took the other group up into the trees with my hawks. We were raiding for eggs, nestlings and tree dwelling creatures like birds and squirrels. **

**The ground group were after deer, rabbits, water fowl, boar and anything that the wolves caught. We needed to take down a large amount of quarry as there were lots of vampires to feed, a large deer would feed maybe fifteen people and a wild boar would feed a fair few too but water fowl like ducks would feed two people only as vampires have big appetites and they eat tonnes of meat. **

**We went back to the mountain with a good selection of food. We had done well and the Clan would have a decent meal thanks to me. I brought back two large stags, a few rabbits, two braces of pheasants, a partridge, a brace of ducks, four wild boars and a fox for the hawks. **

**I staggered into the kitchen carrying the stag on my shoulders and it was huge. I could lift it but it was awkward to carry. **

"**You have had a good hunt Sarah. We have more than enough to feed the clan here but what will we give to the Princes?" The head cook asked.**

"**Well there are only three Princes as Mika is on business so they can have the fowl and I will have the partridge for myself and Larten to share as my hunter's prize" I suggested. **

"**Yes that would work Sarah. Are you going to help me prepare the food?" The head cook asked**

"**I can do but I am needed elsewhere tonight as I have duties" I explained.**

"**Oh right I can manage. Can you send Kitty down here? She can help me out" The head cook asked.**

"**Of course I can" I replied and after washing blood and feathers off of my hands I left the kitchen to find Kitty. **

**I found Kitty in the Halls of Sport having a training session ready for her next duel in the Tournament. "Kitty the head cook wants you in the kitchen tonight to pluck and prepare the meals" I said.**

"**Oh alright Sarah I'm on my way but I have not cooked before" Kitty said.**

"**Have you plucked and prepared meat before?" I asked.**

"**Not for a long time but I know what to do. I will ask Samantha to help out as well as she is bored apparently" Kitty explained.**

"**That is a good plan. Thank you for helping out on such short notice. I would do it myself but I have duties tonight" I replied.**

**I left the Halls of Sport to find Larten as we did our duties together normally as we were blessed mates. I found Larten in the hall where food was served fixing a table that had a broken leg on it. Our duties tonight were to fix a few things. I had to dust a few things and clean out the empty quarters where their occupants had moved on. It did not take long but it was boring dusting and polishing furniture. I also had to clean out the fireplaces and the chimneys needed sweeping too. **

**I was kept busy most of the time but it had to be done because everybody had to pitch in. I was used to helping out at the Cirque Du Freak so it was no different helping out here. **

**Mr Tall never worked me hard but what I did was vital to the Cirque Du Freak's continuing success. **

**Cleaning out the chimneys was horrible as I got covered in soot and dust which made me cough and smell bad but it had to be done. I wore rough clothes and gloves to do it and Larten helped me out anyway so it was not so bad. It could not be done alone as it would take too long even with super speed as there were so many fireplaces in the mountain. **

**After I had finished with the chimneys I moved on to dusting and polishing the tables in the food hall, they all needed wiping down anyway as they were stained. We tried to keep the mountain clean after our huge clean up and decorating challenge as it was pointless to decorate the place if it was left to get all dusty and filthy again. **

**Eventually I finished my duties and I joined the clan for dinner. I had roasted my partridge and I ate most of it as it was tiny. It was barely enough for me let alone Larten as well so we ate some of the wild boar as well that had been spit roasted and basted in cider as it had a rather strong flavour to it but it was nice. **

**After the clan had eaten the spare food was packed into ice and salt and preserved for a later date. I was called to the Prince's Dome after dinner and as I had not been expecting it I was a bit scared.**

"**I have been called to see the Princes" I said to the guard on duty**

"**Who are you?" The guard asked.**

"**I am Sarah Crepsley, Larten Crepsley's blessed mate" I explained.**

"**Oh yes I was expecting you. Go on through" The guard said and he let me pass into the Prince's Dome.**

"**Sarah there you are. What took you so long?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Sorry I was feasting and then I had to clean up afterwards as it is on my duty roster" I explained.**

"**Oh right OK. We have summoned you here to ask you why we did not get much food tonight" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**I did not catch much as the woods are quite empty this time of year. I gave you the best of what we had" I said.**

"**It was not enough for us. You know that we get first pick of the hunt" Prince Darren cut in.**

"**I am sorry. I did not get much either. I had one partridge to share with Larten that was tiny and we had some wild boar that is all" I explained.**

"**Oh right. You should have had more than that as you were the hunt leader. I can see why we got what we got now. You gave what should have been yours to us as that was your duty" Prince Darren said.**

"**Yes I did, I was going to give you one of the boars but the head cook said no as then there would not have been enough for the rest of the clan" I explained.**

"**That is fine Sarah. The next time we eat you and Larten may eat with us as your reward for working so hard and being so selfless when it came to tonight's food shortage" Prince Vancha said.**

"**Thank you very much Sire. I will enjoy dining with you and Larten will be impressed I am sure" I replied as I bowed and left the Prince's Dome.**

**When I went back into the main halls I found Larten chatting to Seba about some trip that he had been on.**

"**Hello Larten, hi Seba" I said.**

"**Hello Sarah, are you OK?" Larten asked.**

"**I am fine thank you my dear. You will never guess what the Princes have done" I said excitedly.**

"**What have they done?" Larten asked.**

"**Because we gave up our rightful food for them tonight they have invited me and you to dine with them at their High Table for dinner" I explained.**

"**That is truly an honour Larten" Seba said.**

"**Indeed it is. I must get my best robes cleaned then and you will need a new dress" Larten said decisively.**

"**I have lots of new clothes Larten. I am sure that I have something suitable for such an auspicious occasion" I replied.**

"**Well that is alright then. I am so proud of you giving up your hunter's rights for the Princes and look at how we have been repaid" Larten said proudly. **

"**I know I was rather surprised because the Princes sounded stern when I went into the Dome. They asked me why they had so little food and when I explained the situation and how I had less than them they decided to invite us to dine with them. It will be fun and we will have a laugh" I explained.**

"**Yes but do not forget your place Sarah. This is a great honour and we will act as such even if we do get a bit drunk on their best ale" Larten replied as he tried to hide his feelings. I could tell how pleased he was but he tried to keep his usual straight face. **

**I was quite excited about the prospect of dining with the Princes but it was going to be stressful as I had to choose what to wear and I had to try and not be too boastful but I could not help but tell my friends in the hunt party. **

"**You're having me on Sarah. Are you really telling me that you and Larten will be dining at the Prince's High Table? That can't be true" Kitty said when I told her. **

"**It is true Kitty. You will see it for yourself later on" I said.**

"**Alright then this should be interesting to watch" Kitty said. I could tell how jealous she was but I had earned my place fair and square. **

"**Sarah, are you really going to be dining with the Princes tonight?" Vanez asked me when he heard about it.**

"**Yes Vanez they invited me and Larten personally in return for me giving up my hunter's rights so that they got more food than me when we were short of it" I explained for the fifth time that night.**

"**That is so cool. Can you throw me the scraps?" Vanez laughed.**

"**I would but there will not be any scraps and it is bad manners to throw food Vanez" I replied sternly but then I smiled to show that I got the joke.**

"**Sarah it is time to get ready" I heard Larten say to me.**

"**Can you stop doing that? I do not like it when you appear out of nowhere and make me jump like that" I said.**

"**Sorry dear but we must go and prepare ourselves. What will you be wearing?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am wearing my satin gown that you gave me for my birthday. It is the one with the crystals on it and the high collar" I said simply.**

"**That would be acceptable. I am wearing my best robes and that high collared cape that I wore for our blessed mateship" Larten said.**

"**We will look like royals Larten. I hope that the Princes have clothing that is as fine or we will look better than them and that is not right" I said.**

"**Well we are guests so we are entitled to look our best" Larten said as we got changed.**

"**Can you help me with this? It is hard to do up" I asked Larten.**

"**Here let me do it" Larten said as he laced up my corset and helped me look my best. **

"**Thank you. I look stunning now" I commented.**

"**Yes but you do not look as good as me Sarah" Larten replied.**

"**I do not think so my love. Anyway we had better go now" I said. **

"**Yes we had better go. This will be a good time for all of us" Larten said as we left to go down to the main hall. **

**Normally we would enter by the main entrance but tonight we entered via the Prince's Dome entrance as it was connected and we walked up to the High Table. **

**We took our seats and then we looked down at the Clan who were all staring up at us like we were celebrities or something. I loved it and from up here you really could look down upon everybody. **

"**Let's eat" Prince Vancha said and we tucked into our feast. We had everything that you could want and it was cooked to perfection. I stuffed my face with venison and woodcock then I had a hot berry tart and a lot of fine wines, spirits and fresh blood that was still warm. **

"**How is it?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**It is the best meal I have had since my blessed mateship feast" I replied.**

"**I am glad to hear that Sarah. How are you anyway" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I am very well thank you Sire. This wine is good" I replied.**

"**Please call me Vancha as you are my equal tonight and that goes for us all" Prince Vancha said.**

"**OK then I will do. Mika can you pass me the pheasant?" I asked. **

"**Of course I can. You really are hungry if you can eat as much as what you have eaten" Prince Mika said.**

"**I am starving. I have not eaten for three days in preparation for tonight's feast" I replied as I stuffed pheasant breast into my mouth and ate a couple of chicken legs too. **

**I had a lot of wine and I did get a bit messy but Larten had drunk a lot more than me. He was on the strong, dark ale and he devoured it by the barrel load. It was nice but it was way too strong for me so I stuck to wine and blood. **

"**What a meal" Prince Darren said when we were all finished.**

"**Yes it was rather good. It makes me want to become a General again" Larten said.**

"**You still could you know. We would accept you readily" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Sarah how would you like to be a Vampire Prince's blessed mate?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I have never thought about it Vancha. It must be cool though. Do I get my own throne?" I asked.**

"**You would share mine Sarah but it has its advantages" Larten replied.**

"**Are you considering it Larten?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Yes if the clan vote me in then I will seriously consider it" Larten said.**

"**We will discuss it at the next council meeting. I will put it on the agenda" Prince Darren said.**

"**That would be fine. Sarah what is your opinion of me becoming a General again?" Larten asked me.**

"**As your blessed mate I support you one hundred per cent and if it means that you get to become a Prince then go for it" I said.**

"**Can you cope with the elevation of status?" Prince Darren asked me.**

"**Of course I can. I was born to rule and besides with you and Larten helping me I cannot go wrong" I replied.**

"**You would have no official powers but you would have some privileges Sarah like sharing Larten's throne and you would dine with us every night" Prince Darren explained.**

"**Oh right well it sounds like fun to me. If you want to do it Larten then I have no objection to it and I have always wanted to know where you guys sleep. Is it as nice as they say it is in your quarters?" I asked.**

"**We have the best of everything Sarah but we have a heavy work load and we do not often get time to ourselves so it is not all plain sailing" Prince Mika explained.**

"**Oh well I can manage. Thank you for you invitation tonight. It has been a very enjoyable evening" I said.**

"**We are glad that you enjoyed it Sarah and thank you for hunting for us all" Prince Mika said as we left the High Table and retired to our quarters to sleep the day away with very full stomachs and we both felt rather drunk. **

**When we were back in our quarters we discussed the prospect of Larten actually becoming a General again.**

"**I know I said that I wanted nothing more to do with the Generals but since being here with you I feel like I am not utilising all of my potential. I will think about becoming a General again seriously but it means that I will be busy a lot of the time and we will not see each other as often as what we do now" Larten explained.**

"**Do not do it if you do not want to. I do not mind either way as I could become a General instead of you and then I could become the first Vampire Princess in my own right" I said.**

"**You cannot be a General as vampiresses are not allowed to become them but you could still become a Vampire Princess if I get voted as a Prince in my own right because then I could bestow the title upon you" Larten explained.**

"**Oh OK. We have both taken and passed the Trials of Death so that is no problem. I want you to be happy Larten so do as you wish to do and do not become a General to keep me happy as there is no need" I said.**

"**I will become a Vampire General again if there is a space for me as we have a lot of Generals at the moment" Larten explained.**

"**When is the next vote?" I asked.**

"**Not for a while because of Kurda's treachery the security has been increased tenfold but as there are no vampaneze now it may be brought forward" Larten explained.**

"**That is OK then. You have my vote anyway regardless of any other factor" I said.**

"**Thank you for that but you are not allowed to vote as you are my blessed mate but if I become a Vampire Prince I will try and get that rule changed" Larten said.**

"**Can you imagine it Larten? Prince Larten and Princess Sarah of the Vampire Clan is who we would be. It has a nice ring to it" I said.**

"**Well yes but do not get too excited as it takes years to become a Vampire Prince and it is not easy. I have to prove myself as a General first and that is if I get voted in again" Larten explained.**

"**Alright I understand. At least I will not be snobby like some former vampiresses" I said.**

"**Well that is good to hear. Anyway I am shattered and the sun rose ages ago so we should sleep now" Larten said.**

"**Yes alright. I hope we are not hung over in the evening. I have an early start tomorrow" I replied.**

"**What are you doing then?" Larten asked.**

"**I have to take the hawks out and my horse needs a run then I have duties in the Halls of Sport before the next round of Tournament matches is held" I explained. **

"**Oh right who is duelling tomorrow?" Larten asked.**

"**I am not sure off hand. I will check the list. I think that it is you against Peter" I said.**

"**Oh right who is Peter?" Larten asked.**

"**Peter is a newly blooded vampire who is helping out here for a while as his mentor was killed. He is not to be underestimated" I said.**

"**In that case it will be a good match. When do you duel next?" Larten asked.**

"**I am duelling after your match against Raven who is Darryl's widow" I explained. **

"**Oh right. I am in the mixed tournament too and so are you I believe" Larten said.**

"**Yes you are facing Suki in the mixed tournament and I am not in it. I got knocked out but I am still in the Ladies tournament" I explained.**

"**Oh right never mind but we must sleep now. We can discuss it tomorrow" Larten said as we got into bed.**

**Larten fell asleep quickly but I had no such luck. I felt ill but I had not mentioned it as Larten worried if I was ill. I felt sick and dizzy. I put it down to too much alcohol and I tried to sleep as best as I could. **

**In the evening when I woke up I felt dreadful. I was really weak and I could not do much.**

"**Sarah you look awful. Are you OK my love?" Larten asked me when he saw me.**

"**No Larten I feel very ill and dizzy. I was like it yesterday but I did not mention it" I said.**

"**Why did you not tell me? You look really sick" Larten said.**

"**I feel really sick and weak" I said.**

"**Come with me to the medical wing straight away" Larten said.**

"**I cannot walk as I am that weak" I said.**

"**I will carry you there my love, put this on" Larten said as he handed me my cloak that was lined with fox fur. **

"**Alright, I do feel dreadful" I said.**

**Larten carried me to the medical wing and when we arrived Larten called for the medic.**

"**Sarah is ill" Larten said.**

"**Sarah, can you tell me what happened?" The medic asked.**

"**Well I felt sick and dizzy last night and now I feel worse. I dined with the Princes last night and I had a lot to drink. I think that I am hung over" I said.**

"**No Sarah you are not hung over. You have not thrown up. I hate to say this but it looks like poison" The medic said.**

"**That cannot be the case because we are all OK and why poison one person and not all of the Princes and myself?" Larten asked.**

"**It looks like somebody has a grudge against you Sarah. Can you think of anybody?" The medic asked.**

"**No everybody is so nice and I have lots of friends here" I explained.**

"**Is there anybody who is jealous of you?" The medic asked.**

"**Only Samantha but she is not at the mountain she is with Vanez on business at the moment" I explained.**

"**This poisoning has been happening slowly and only now you have enough in your system to make you sick" The medic explained.**

"**What poison has been used?" I asked anxiously.**

"**I am not sure but it looks like arsenic. If you were human you would have been killed a long time ago but the vampire blood has minimised the damage. You are lucky to be a vampiress Sarah" the medic said.**

"**Well we must report it to the Princes immediately. Is there a cure for arsenic poisoning?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes there is luckily. You have to drink liquid charcoal that is laced with garlic because that will soak up the poison and then you will get better" The medic said.**

"**OK then that is a relief. I thought that I was done for" I said.**

"**If you had any more arsenic in your system it would have been too late but you caught it in time" The medic said.**

"**Larten, can you get the Princes to come here please?" I asked.**

"**Yes of course I can. I will be back later" Larten said as he left.**

**At that point the medic handed me a goblet full of black liquid that was liquid charcoal and crushed garlic. It tasted vile but it was better than a slow, painful death. **

"**How does the garlic help?" I asked.**

"**It helps to take the arsenic out of your body and it expels it quicker so you recover, sulphur is good too but that in itself is poison so garlic is better. It is a good job that garlic does not actually affect vampires like what humans say it does" The medic laughed. **

"**Yes it is but I will have bad breath for a while" I complained.**

"**It is better than dying Sarah" the medic said.**

"**Yes I know that Medic" I agreed.**

**Just then Larten turned up with the Princes behind him. The Princes crowded around me and they were all shocked at the news. **

"**I cannot believe that anybody would want to poison you Sarah. It will be investigated thoroughly and the guilty party will be executed for attempted murder" Prince Vancha declared. **

"**Are you feeling OK Sarah?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**I am very weak Darren. Luckily the medic knew what to do to cure me and it was not too late" I said.**

"**That is lucky Sarah. I will have a guard posted at the entrance to your quarters and I will post a guard outside the medical wing too" Prince Mika decided.**

"**Thank you sire but I am not a General or a Princess so why the special treatment?" I asked.**

"**It is important to us that you are OK because you are a victim of a hideous crime and we make it our business to protect all victims of crime" Prince Mika explained.**

"**Thank you for your concern Sire. I am grateful for all of your help" I replied.**

"**You are welcome Sarah now we will leave you to rest up. I will investigate this matter personally with Larten's help" Prince Vancha said decisively. **

"**Thank you Sire Larten, can you stay with me please?" I asked **

"**Of course I can my love. I have got Kitty to do your duties for you and I will fly the hawks later after the horse has had his exercise" Larten replied.**

"**I feel safe when you are around me and that is why I want you here. I am so vulnerable at the moment and I feel very weak. The tournament can be postponed until I am well enough to run it" I replied.**

"**Larten I will get some of the Generals to begin investigating this serious matter. I will pick the most trusted Generals here and they will report to you with any developments as they occur" Prince Vancha said before he left the medical wing. **

**I stayed in the medical wing for many weeks recovering from my poisoning. I was scared to eat anything in case it was poisoned so I lost a lot of weight and I became very weak. I only ate what Larten cooked for me.**

**I was afraid of people now as I did not know who had tried to kill me and I was under guard constantly. I did not mind it but I feared that the poisoner would try again as they had failed this time. That made me fear for my life but Larten helped me out and he refused to leave my side. Larten escorted me everywhere and when he was not there my guards were. I had two guards outside my quarters and two guards as escorts as additional security. **

**I would not be happy until the truth came to light and I found out who tried to kill me by poisoning me. I went to the Prince's Dome one evening and they were questioning certain clan members. **

"**Excuse me Sires but it has been ages and we have not got anywhere so may I make a suggestion?" I asked.**

"**Of course you can. You are after all the victim in this Sarah" Prince Mika said.**

"**Maybe we should do a search of the whole mountain to find out where the arsenic has been stored and we could search the quarters to look for evidence. That may help us" I suggested.**

"**That is a good idea Sarah but it would take ages to do it" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**It will not take as long as questioning every clan member though" I replied.**

"**That is a good point. Alright Sarah we will begin searching quarters for any incrimination evidence" Prince Vancha said decisively and I left the Prince's Dome to pass the message on to Larten. **

"**That will take a while. We should do it randomly and not make anybody aware of it that way they will not have time to hide or destroy the evidence against them" Larten said. **

"**That is a good point my love. I will make the Princes aware of that fact and then they can begin their searches" I replied.**

"**Anyway back to the tournament we should continue it as you are well enough now to duel" Larten said.**

"**Yes and that way if the clan think that things are going back to normal then it may lull them into a false sense of safety and then they could make a mistake that will reveal them to us" I replied.**

"**Yes I agree my love but anyway we have duties to attend to so we had better get on with it. I have got a bit of business to attend to as I am in the process of being made a General again" Larten explained so we both left our quarters. I reported to the head cook and Larten went to the council meeting that he had been asked to attend. **

"**Ah Sarah it is so good to see you looking so well. Are you OK?" the head cook asked when I arrived in the kitchen with my guards to start plucking a goose for the Prince's High Table. **

"**I am very well thank you Chef. One goose will not feed the Princes on its own though" I said.**

"**That is why we have three geese and they will be stuffed with lemon, thyme and parsley before they are roasted" The head cook said.**

"**That sounds nice to me. I wish I could have goose but I have to be content with duck and rabbit pie" I said.**

"**You love my pies though Sarah" the head cook said.**

"**Yes Chef I do indeed but I like to eat a variety of foods and not the same thing all of the time" I explained.**

"**That is fair enough, I will sort you out something special if you like to share with Larten" the head cook said.**

"**That would be great. I will take the pie too as I am starving Chef" I said.**

"**Would you like a fish dish? We have lots of fresh fish now as it is the summer. The river is full of trout" The head cook said.**

"**That would be nice. I would like that a lot as game and poultry is great but I need something different" I said.**

"**How about I cook you a whole trout that will be cooked in milk and served with lemon and parsley mayonnaise?" The head cook suggested. **

"**That would be lovely Chef" I said. **

**The head cook was newly blooded to our clan and he had brought a lot of ingredients with him from his home so he was able to expand our menu. **

**I finished in the kitchen and after I washed up I was free to do as I pleased until it was time to eat. My guards came with me when I went to fly my hawks. I had not flown them for a while as I had been too sick to do it but now that I was better I put their bells on and I let them fly free around the mountain. **

"**C'mon then go fly" I said and both Diamond and Angel took to the air and I watched them in the twilight. I heard them squawking to each other and then I saw Diamond swoop down and when she reappeared she had what looked like a hare clasped in her talons. **

**Angel did the same and she too caught something. **

"**C'mon then Angel, Diamond" I called out. My hawks flew to me and dropped their kills at my feet. The hawks had brought back a hare and a fox cub. I pulled the fox cub apart with my hands and fed it to the hawks. They ate quickly and then they flew around again whilst I cleaned out their aviary. I got rid of the feathers and I put some clean perches in there for them, I also filled up the water dispenser.**

**I loved my hawks and they gave me something to do so that I was not as stressed as what I had been due to the poisoning incident. I was still fearful of my life but I managed to focus and I slowly began to trust people again. **

**The random searches of the quarters and the mountain had revealed the arsenic and we found some in one person's quarters but they were not at the mountain when the poisoning took place so they were cleared of any wrong doing. It was a real mystery but it would be solved eventually. **

**The arsenic was found in a storeroom next to the salt and other seasonings. It was easy to see how it could have been mixed in with the food or rather it could have been picked up and used as salt by accident but as I never used salt it was not me who had used it by accident.**

**Eventually the truth was revealed and it was a shocking tale of betrayal and sadness for us all…..**


	24. The Attempted Murder Trial

**Chapter 24 the Attempted Murder Trial**

**It turned out that a shady vampire called David was the guilty party after all of our investigations. His motive was revenge pure and simple because I had refused to make him into a full vampire as he was not ready. It was not my job anyway as he was not my assistant and therefore I had no say in when he would be made into a full vampire. **

**We had to prepare the courtroom for the trial. We turned an empty hall into the court room. We built seats and boxes for the spectators and the witnesses and a special box for the accused party to stand.**

**There had not been an attempted murder trial held before in the mountain so I had to tell the vampires what to do to make it a fair trial. I was the victim so I had to speak and I had to be cross examined as with the accused before the jury made up its mind on the verdict which was almost certain to be guilty but it was not guaranteed. **

**I was quite nervous but I had no choice about this Trial. It had to be done as that was vampire law. Vampire law states that minor crimes are settled by a decision by the Princes but major crimes go to trial like humans do. **

**We all had a role to play as it were. I was the victim, Larten was the prosecution lawyer, Prince Vancha was the judge, Prince Mika was the defence lawyer as nobody else wanted to do it, and twelve Generals made up the jury.**

**We also had character referees for myself and for the defence and we had a couple of guards who had found incriminating evidence to speak as witnesses for the prosecution.**

**Eventually everything was ready and we filed into the courtroom in silence. I took my seat and Larten took his seat too then we stood up for the arrival of the Princes and then the trial began.**

"**Vampires and vampiresses of the jury you have been charged with deciding the fate of the accused David who stands before you now accused of attempted murder and actual bodily harm. The victim is our very own Sarah Crepsley who we all know and respect. It is your job to listen to the evidence that is put before you and to deliver your verdict at the end of these proceedings" Prince Vancha said and we all sat down.**

"**Would the defence please state their case?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Certainly Sire. The defence claims innocence in these matters and we enter a plea of not guilty on both counts" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Very well Sarah, have you anything to add?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Yes. I want the accused to be imprisoned rather than executed if he is found guilty as life in prison for five hundred years or more is better than being executed" I said.**

"**If that is your wish then it will be considered but it is up to the jury to decide on the fate of the accused" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**The defence will state its case first" Prince Vancha said.**

**At this point Prince Mika made a speech about how David was young and stupid but he was not a murderer and that he had an alibi for the night of the poisoning so it could not have been him. Then Larten stood up and he spoke for the prosecution;**

"**As you all know I am Sarah's blessed mate and when I took my vows I swore to protect and stand by my mate no matter what the circumstances. I ask that you grant us justice and sentence that rogue in the dock to death so that he cannot try and poison anybody else. I have had to look after Sarah and I have had to post guards outside our quarters and now Sarah will not eat anything unless I have made it which is obviously a burden to you all as I have been forced to abandon my duties in favour of looking after my blessed mate. This heinous crime has affected both of us and the clan immensely and now it is time for justice to be granted to us and if there is any justice in this clan you will find the accused guilty of all charges that are against him" Larten said in his stern voice that showed that he meant business. **

"**Thank you for your statement Larten. The defence will have a chance to respond now" Prince Vancha said.**

"**David you are accused of two horrible crimes. Do you have anything to say?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Yes Sire I have lots to say. I am innocent of the charges that have been put to me. The evidence that you have against me must have been planted as I have an alibi for the night of the poisoning. I was out hunting with my mate and I did not return until after Sarah was hospitalised. I have several witnesses who saw me hunting and I have enemies in the clan who have been trying to engineer my downfall since I arrived here. People are jealous of me and they hate me because I was close to Kurda the only real traitor in this clan. It is awful that this has happened but I did not do it and if you kill me the Gods of the Vampires will judge you for killing an innocent man" David said then he sat down. **

"**Can we see the evidence against the accused now please?" Prince Vancha said.**

**At this point in the proceedings the two Generals who had the evidence stood up and presented it to the court. The Generals presented the bottle of arsenic along with the sample of rug that had been taken from David's quarters that also had arsenic on it. **

**Then the Generals presented their other evidence which was a witness who had seen David putting something into the food that had made me sick and as he had not been on kitchen duty at the time it was rather suspicious. **

"**The evidence against the accused is strong but it could have been planted. What were you doing to Sarah's food when you were seen in the kitchen?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I put some seasoning into Sarah's food. I was going to ask her how it tasted afterwards but obviously I never got the chance. It is stupid I know but I wanted an honest opinion. The food must have already been poisoned and by adding seasoning I was unknowingly setting myself up for a fall because I did not commit this crime" David replied.**

"**Why did you not wait until it was your turn in the kitchen?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**As far as I was aware it was my turn in the kitchen. I had been told to go there and help prepare the food by Kitty as she needed help and the chef did not mind. I had finished all of my other duties and although I was not meant to be on kitchen duties I went anyway" David explained.**

"**Is that your defence? I thought that you were hunting?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I did go hunting after I had finished in the kitchen and by the time that I returned with my mate Sarah was in the medical wing and I was blamed for it. I can explain the arsenic in my room too. I had some to use on the cockroaches that I had in there, I sprinkled it into my rugs and by the door so that any cockroach that crossed it would absorb it through their skin and die. I had been given permission from Seba Nile to de-cockroach my quarters" David explained.**

"**I understand and that is why this case is hard to solve. If you did not do it out of revenge as the prosecution claim then who did do it?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**I don't know who did it Sire but it was me" David replied.**

"**Alright let's see the defence's evidence" Prince Vancha said and the defence showed their evidence including statements from David's mate who swore that they hunted all night and that David was not the sort of person who would get revenge on anyone no matter what they had done.**

"**The court will now retire whilst the jury consider their verdicts" Prince Vancha announced so we all left except for the jury. **

"**It is in the hands of the Gods of the Vampires now. If they bless us we will have justice and if not David will walk free. In my opinion he is evil and he could have killed you my love if not for the swiftness of the medic and his skills" Larten said when had retired to our quarters.**

"**I do not believe that David is guilty, I think that somebody framed him just as he said but it is out of our hands now Larten. It is up to the jury to decide David's fate" I replied with uncertainty in my voice. **

"**Yes it is and I hope that they make the right decision but any decision that they do make will be a fair one I am sure" Larten replied in his monotone voice. **

"**I am going to bed. I am so tired and there is nothing that we can do until tomorrow evening anyway" I said as I got into bed. **

**I fell asleep quite quickly. I was troubled by David's fate and it was horrible thinking that I could have the death of an innocent man on my conscience. It was however up to the jury and there was nothing that could be done about it as their decision would be final.**

**I went into the courtroom that evening as nervous as David must have been and even though I was the victim I felt like I was on trial too.**

**Prince Vancha walked in and we all stood up until he had sat down.**

"**Yesterday you heard all of the evidence in this case and now I must ask the foreman of the jury have you reached a verdict that you are all agreed upon?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We have reached a verdict Sire" Vanez replied as he was foreman of the jury. **

"**What is your verdict on count one attempted murder?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We find the defendant David guilty of attempted murder" Vanez said.**

"**What is your verdict on count two of actual bodily harm?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We find the defendant David guilty of actual bodily harm" Vanez announced.**

"**David you have been convicted on both charges. Foreman of the jury, have you voted for or against execution?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**We have voted for execution by the pit of stakes" Vanez replied.**

"**David for your heinous crimes you will be taken from this courtroom to the dungeons and there you will await your execution date. Take him away" Prince Vancha said and David was led away to the dungeons to await his horrid fate. **

"**These proceedings are over unless anyone has anything to say" Prince Vancha said.**

**The whole was silent for a moment until I stood up and spoke;**

"**Prince Vancha I have something to say. I wish that David gets his last rights and I want him to have a better execution than the pit of stakes as he is so young and in my heart I believe that he is innocent. As the victim of this crime I have the right to ask for whatever I wish and these are my wishes Sire" I said.**

"**Very well Sarah if you insist upon this then I will do as you wish but it is not very common for the victims of crime to ask for mercy on behalf of the guilty party. You always were different though and that is why I respect you" Prince Vancha said.**

"**Thank you Sire, I appreciate this" I said.**

"**This court is adjourned" Prince Vancha said.**

**We all left the courtroom and it was a relief that this whole horrible matter had been concluded but it was not the result that I wanted. I had tried to make it better but it was really hard to watch an execution of such a young vampire as David was only a couple of decades older than me and as a result he only looked slightly older than me. **

**I felt really bad for David but a jury had found him guilty and although he had a believable defence it was not enough to save him from his fate. **

"**Are you OK?" Larten asked me.**

"**Yes but I am disappointed that David has to die. It is just too horrible" I replied.**

"**You do not have to watch the execution my love, it is up to you entirely as you are the victim" Larten said.**

"**I know but I should watch it really and as David is not getting the pit of stakes how will he die?" I asked curiously.**

"**Well he could be hung or beheaded but the most common is beheading" Larten said.**

"**It is still very messy though, I would rather that he was banished from the mountain and made to survive on his own out there rather than a guaranteed death" I replied. **

"**Well that is not the vampire way. We always make examples of our traitors and our criminals as it is the only way to ensure safety for vampires like you and me who live by the rules" Larten replied glumly. **

"**How many deaths have you watched?" I asked.**

"**I have seen too many executions to count. Most of them were vampires who failed the Trials of Death. I always thought that execution for failure of the Trials of Death was a stupid idea but I cannot change our traditions. The worst execution that I ever saw was of a vampiress who had killed her mate because he had been unfaithful to her. She was a mere child as she had been blooded young like Samantha was. She was so scared and she did not understand what was happening as she did not speak any English at all and none of us spoke her language. We gave her last rights and we tried to explain to her but she was a wreck and she sobbed a lot. I tried to stop it but she was a murderer and so she had to die. It was horrible watching this child die but it had to be done. I prayed for her as much as I could and I hope that she found peace but I will never know for sure" Larten replied.**

"**Oh right. Where was this girl from?" I asked.**

"**She came from somewhere in Asia. She had sneaked aboard a ship and she ended up in a cabin belonging to one of our clan members where she was blooded but she did not understand anything that was going on and her mentor did not understand a word of her language either so it was doomed to failure from the start and she should never have been blooded in my opinion" Larten replied.**

"**Well most certainly not in those circumstances but that is a young fully blooded vampire for you. They blood and mate with everything human that moves unless their mentors teach them some respect and they never care about the consequences of their actions" I said.**

"**That is very true Sarah" Larten replied.**

"**Well I think that there should be rules about who gets blooded and who can actually blood humans so that we can try and avoid these problems as I have seen so many teenagers here recently that it is stupid. They all have the same story about being from broken homes and falling in love with their mentors was their ticket to freedom Larten" I said.**

"**I agree but I am not innocent I mean first there was Darren, you and then Samantha but at least I take responsibility for my charges and I am very selective about who I blood and who I leave behind" Larten replied.**

"**I know that but even I have not always been appreciative of the gift that you have given me as it is also a curse but the pros have outweighed the cons and now I would not have it any other way" I said.**

"**You like your powers and you love me but it is not enough. I hope that you are happy Sarah as I do everything that I can to make you love your life" Larten said.**

"**I have never been happier my love but I do miss my friends that I had. They will be adults now with jobs and families, I am sure that they miss me too Larten but I love you so much and I have a lot of friends here to make up for it" I replied.**

"**I know that Sarah and you will always have me no matter what happens to the clan. I have never met anybody as entertaining as you and you are not afraid of risking everything for your principals" Larten replied.**

"**Are you going to become a General again Larten?" I asked.**

"**Of course but we have to wait for the next council gathering before I can be voted in and invested. You will love it Sarah and if I become a Prince you can share my throne too as I said before" Larten said.**

"**That would be totally awesome Larten. I would really love that" I said.**

"**I saw you eying up the thrones the other night. You have always had your eyes on the big prize but it is hard work and you have to earn the benefits" Larten said.**

"**I know that Larten but I am happy to be by your side to start with and then I will earn my own throne in my own right" I said.**

"**I have no doubt of it. I would love to see you giving orders out and putting your pompousness to good use" Larten replied.**

"**I think you mean the pompousness that I get from you Larten as I never used to be like this until you came along and you know it" I said.**

"**I watched you walking around with your head in the air the other night like you owed the place. I guess that you were showing off your tiara" Larten said.**

"**Yes I was and by the way I am an aristocrat Larten as I am descended from French nobles who were related to William the Conqueror. My family has a coat of arms so I am entitled to be a bit haughty sometimes as it is in my blood" I said.**

"**I understand now Sarah and by the way if that is the case then why would a noble like you want a pauper like me?" Larten asked.**

"**You are not a pauper Larten as you became my blessed mate and as a result of that you gained a social class upgrade due to my status" I said.**

"**So I am a dowager aristocrat then through marriage?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes I guess so but obviously vampire society is different so we have our vampire standing as well as our human status" I explained.**

"**Of course but it makes no difference to us here as human class systems have no place here but it is nice to think that we have high standing" Larten replied.**

"**Yes it is but we must not be too pompous or arrogant as it is bad manners and it may offend other clan members" I replied. **

"**That is very true Sarah. You have grown up so much since I blooded you all those years ago and it has paid off as you have turned out pretty well under my guidance and because of me you live in luxury or as best as I can provide for you as I really do care about you" Larten replied.**

"**I know you do Larten. When is the execution?" I asked.**

"**I am not sure but it will be when David has had his last rights and when somebody steps up to be the executioner" Larten said.**

"**So you do not have an executioner?" I asked.**

"**No normally it is not required for the pit of stakes but in the case of a beheading somebody has to step forward and do the deed" Larten explained.**

"**Who will step forward then?" I asked.**

"**Well normally the Princes will decide amongst themselves who does it but after the last time with Kurda it was too hard for them to choose for this execution so I might put my name forward to do the job horrible as it is. You know that I am highly skilled with a sword and I at least would make a clean job of it as where some of the others may not be so accurate" Larten said.**

"**You would seriously consider executing David personally? This is not a revenge thing for me is it?" I asked.**

"**I admit that it is partly about that but it is also about mercy as you asked for last rights and my act of mercy is to make a quick end to him as like you said suffering is pointless" Larten explained.**

"**You have softened a lot since I have been with you and you have changed. I never knew that you were so merciful to those who do not necessarily deserve it but I am of course grateful" I said.**

"**You know that it is our anniversary soon Sarah. What do you want me to get you as you have everything as it is?" Larten asked.**

"**I have not really thought about it to be honest Larten, I had not forgotten about it but I have not really considered what to get you either. Maybe we should not get presents but instead we should do something special on our own just you and me" I suggested.**

"**That is a good idea but what would we do? I mean we have been to Vampire Ville, we have lived here for years and the Cirque Du Freak has broken up for the summer before they reunite in the autumn. We need to do something that means something to both of us and something that we will always remember as it is a special occasion" Larten replied.**

"**Maybe we could return to England and visit the places that I left behind or maybe we could visit a theme park and go on the roller-coasters as they are so much fun" I suggested.**

"**What on Earth is a roller-coaster Sarah?" Larten asked.**

"**It is like a ride. You sit in a car and you are strapped in whilst you go round a track at two hundred miles an hour over loop the loops and upside down. It is so much fun and everybody screams with excitement. You would love it" I said.**

"**How long does the ride last?" Larten asked.**

"**It lasts about two minutes but it seems a lot longer than that" I said.**

"**I think that those sort of things do not appeal to me but if you like it then I will give it a go. I think that I am too old for human excitements like that personally and why would you want to go to a place that is crawling with humans and I bet that it is not open at night time either?" Larten asked, he sounded grumpy.**

"**Well that is a point but we can still go to England and enjoy ourselves" I replied.**

"**No I think that I want to take you on a mystery tour instead and show you around some of my old cities that I loved when I was human but they will be so much different now. It would be nice to see what has happened to the city where I grew up as it has been a long time since I went there" Larten suggested.**

"**Alright that sounds like fun. As long as these cities have decent hotels in them" I said sternly.**

"**I am sure that I can find a suitable hotel for us both" Larten said.**

"**Cool I hope that it is a decent one as you know what I am like and it is a special occasion so we deserve to celebrate it" I said.**

"**Maybe we could have a party here first to celebrate with the clan and then we could leave for my old home city afterwards. What do you think?" Larten asked.**

"**Oh yes that would be grand and that way everybody has something to look forward to although I would like David there as then he can have some fun before he must die. Is that possible to arrange?" I asked.**

"**I can see no reason why not but it is highly unusual" Larten said.**

"**Well that is a relief, it can be part of his last rights as my way of forgiving him" I replied.**

"**I think that it would be a nice surprise for him to have before he enters Paradise" Larten replied.**

"**Alright well we will do that then. I can start making preparations for our anniversary party whilst you sort out the other stuff" I said.**

"**If that is what you want then that is what I will do. You get spoiled rotten but it is worth it as you have earned it and I have some money put by so it should be a good party" Larten said.**

"**Cool. Thank you for this Larten. I really appreciate it and you know how much that you mean to me Larten and this party will be one to remember. Do you think that we should have champagne?" I asked hopefully.**

"**Of course we can have whatever we like and no expense will be spared as it is our party and we have worked so hard to save up for it so enjoy it" Larten said.**

"**That is what I had hoped that you would say my love. I will begin planning and making the decorations and you will need to organise a hunt to feed us all as I want a big time feast and this will be a major event in the Clan's calendar. It will be bigger than when an investiture takes place and almost as big as our blessed mateship was" I said.**

"**Well if you want to pull out all of the stops then feel free and I of course will pay for it as is tradition so have whatever you like and make a list of what it is so I know who to pay. You could invite the Cirque Du Freak to put on a show for us or maybe they could be our VIP guests if I arranged it with Hibernious as he owes me a favour anyway" Larten said. **

"**Are you serious? Can I actually have whatever I like?" I asked.**

"**Of course you can and just think of when we are alone. Imagine how that will be for you" Larten said looking at me suggestively. **

"**Well yes I had quite forgotten about that but now that you mention it I hope that it will be as I imagine it to be" I replied. **

"**I will of course make it special for you and it will mean something to us both. I hope that I can satisfy you as it would be a disaster if I could not make you happy on our anniversary" Larten replied. **

"**I have no doubts about you satisfying me in that way but we had better discuss the decorations and the other plans for our party. I was hoping to sing a couple of songs to show you how I have improved and if we did a duet then it would be really good" I said.**

"**Are you actually asking me to sing with you?" Larten asked.**

"**Yes because I have heard you and we could sing something in Japanese or we could sing a song about the clan if you wanted to. I know lots of songs that I could sing with you or songs that I know about you" I replied. **

"**I am not very good performing in public. My talent as a singer I would rather keep private as it could cause people to ask me how to teach them and I cannot teach natural talent. However I do not suppose that three songs would be too much if you also sing three songs" Larten said.**

"**Alright we can do that if you want to as we are both pretty good and we could get the band to back us up" I said.**

"**That is the entertainment sorted and now we have to discuss the other stuff but we can do that later on" Larten said.**

"**Yes we can. I have duties to attend to later but right now I need to sleep as I am shattered" I said.**

"**Alright you can go to bed but I am not tired. I may pop down to the Halls of Sport and watch the chess for a while" Larten said.**

"**Oh alright well I will be here waiting for you when you return but try not to wake me up like you normally do as I cannot be bothered to shift around trying to get comfortable again like I normally have to after you curl up next to me" I said.**

"**I will try not to disturb you but I have never known such a light sleeper as yourself" Larten said as he left for the Halls of Sport.**

"**Bye my love I will see you later" I called out.**

"**Bye Sarah, sleep well my dear" Larten replied before he vanished in a red blur. **

**I got into my bed and I lay there for what seemed like ages as I was cold without Larten lying next to me as we normally shared body heat. The mountain was always cold even in the summer time as it never had the sun light to warm up the inside of our halls so fires were lit all year round instead. **

**When Larten eventually turned up he was obviously inebriated and incoherent so I did not even try to get any sense out of him he just got into bed and he woke up with a sore head due to the strong alcohol that he had consumed. **

"**Why do you drink so much?" I asked.**

"**I was bored and Gavnur challenged me to a drinking contest so I accepted. I consumed eight barrels of ale before Gavnur collapsed and I was declared the winner but now I have a thumping head ache as a consequence" Larten said.**

"**Well that will teach you to think before you accept a challenge like that again" I replied.**

"**If you do not have any objections I am going to sleep this hangover off and then I have duties to perform. I will join you for duties later if you have not finished them by then. Then we will discuss our party and I will see the Princes about me doing that execution as it is up to them really. I also need to discuss the party with them so that they can prepare for it" Larten said.**

"**Alright then I will leave you to rest and I will complete my duties" I replied as I got dressed and left our quarters. **

**I had duties in the Halls of Sport and then I had to fly my hawks. Halls of Sport duties were quite simple tonight as I only had to dust the equipment off, I had to polish the metal and varnish the wooden objects.**

**After I had finished in the Halls of Sport I had to clean the halls where the party would be held which took ages because I was alone and the hall was filthy from where it had been disused for a while and nobody had been in there in a long time. **

**The hall was rather large and its original use has been a training room but it stopped getting used because an accident had happened in there and nobody wanted to go in there after that. The roof had collapsed and as a result two Generals had been seriously injured, the roof was repaired but it was not done very well and it made it dangerous. I got it fixed though as I could not hold a party in a hall if the roof could collapse at any time. **

**I was glad to get my duties out of the way and now that I had some free time I could go out and fly my hawks for a while as they needed regular exercise. After I returned from flying my hawks I bumped into Gavnur who was very hung over still as he had drunk a lot of alcohol and he really did not look very well at all. **

**I saw somebody dressed in red so I went over at full flitting speed thinking that it was Larten but it was not Larten who I crashed into it was Seba who was in the corridor and I was so embarrassed.**

"**I am so sorry Seba. I thought that you were Larten and I did not realise that it was you until it was too late" I said.**

"**It is quite alright, it is an easy mistake to make. Larten must still be in bed as I have not seen him but I did see a green faced Gavnur earlier. He looked very ill indeed" Seba replied.**

"**Yes they had a drinking challenge last night and Larten won but Gavnur does not have as much alcohol tolerance as Larten so that is why Gavnur is suffering now" I explained.**

"**I did see them in the Halls of Sport drinking like a pair of foolish young vagabonds but maybe this will teach them some control" Seba replied.**

"**Yes I would hope so Seba but it is not up to me if my blessed mate and his best friend hold a drinking contest" I replied.**

"**No it is not up to you but it is a shame that you have to put up with Larten being so hung over" Seba replied as he turned to leave the corridor.**

**In a flash Seba had disappeared and I was alone in the corridor once more so I followed it along to the opposite end to where Seba had gone and turned right up the staircase and along another long corridor until I reached the door of my quarters. I opened it and it creaked loudly (I must remember to get some oil and put it on the hinges) I thought to myself as I entered my room. **

**I saw a lump in my bed, I assumed that it was Larten so I went over to wake him up but to my great surprise it was not Larten in my bed it was a very lost Tabitha who had ended up in my quarters because she had used the wrong staircase, followed the wrong corridor and got mixed up. Larten was nowhere to be found so after we had a good laugh about it Tabitha left my quarters and I was alone once more. **

**I had a shower but when I went to change out of my rough clothing that I wore for my duties I could not find anything in my wardrobe that was suitable as all my clothing was either in the wash or it was too fine to wear so I was sort of stuck. I ran down the corridor and I knocked on Mari's door as I hoped that she would have some spare clothes until mine had been dried. Mari spoke Japanese so I had to speak Japanese back to her but mine was not very good.**

"**Konbanwa Mari San" I said.**

"**Konbanwa Sarah, O genki desuka?" Mari replied.**

"**Hai genki desu Mari san. Huku wo kawakasite moraemasuka?" I asked. **

"**Hai" Mari said and she disappeared for a second before she bought me a bag of dry, clean clothes.**

"**Arigatou gozaimasu Mari san" I said and I left.**

**I basically said good evening, asked Mari how she was and then asked her for some dry clothes. I had been practising my Japanese as Mari was a good friend of mine and she had taught me a little Japanese. I had tried to teach her English in return but it was hard. **

**After I had got dressed I went to find Larten as I had not seen him for ages. I assumed that he was out hunting so I went to the Halls of Sport and as I was bored I went on the Bars and practised my moves until I was challenged to a duel. I sent my opponent to the ground and then another person jumped up but she was soon in a heap on the floor as I was far superior to both of my opponents. I did not like to brag but it was true and I had earned my champions tiara so I wore it with honour but not all the time as it was rather heavy. **

**I eventually found Larten in one of the store rooms.**

"**There you are Larten, I have searched the whole mountain for you" I complained.**

"**Why is that?" Larten asked.**

"**I wanted to ask you if you have decided what decorations you would like to be hung up for our party" I said.**

"**That is what I am looking for Sarah, there is a big box of stuff in one of the store rooms that is full of ribbons and other fancy bits" Larten explained.**

"**Oh I know the box that you mean. I have no idea where it is though as I have not seen it since I used it last for our blessed mateship it seems to have disappeared" I said.**

"**Well it had loads of banners and other material that we had hung up before, I figured that we could use the same decorations and make some new ones for the tables as we did not have that before" Larten said.**

"**That is a good idea but where the hell has this box been stored?" I asked sounding frustrated.**

"**Maybe somebody moved it and forgot to tell us or maybe it was discarded as rubbish by somebody who did not know what it was" Larten replied.**

"**It is definitely not in this room and it is not upstairs either as I have already searched. The only place that we have not looked is in the Princes' personal storeroom but how it got there if it is in there would be a mystery" I said.**

"**Well we had better go and look as this search has turned up nothing" Larten replied.**

**So we headed up to the Princes' store room and sure enough we found what we were looking for. The box that we had been looking for had been put inside one of our big wooden chests that had lots of banners and other decorations in it that we needed to hang up for our party. **

**We took the chest out of the store room and we found all of our missing decorations and some other stuff that was not ours so we left that behind and took the chest up to our quarters.**

**We needed to go through it properly in order to find out what we needed to make and also what materials we had left over to make stuff from. **

"**I am glad that we found this chest. How the heck did it get into the Princes' personal store room though? I instructed the people who tidied up after our blessed mateship to pack everything away and put it into our quarters, they packed it away neatly but they put it in the wrong place" I complained.**

"**Well at least we have it now and we do not need to make much. Some wreaths for the doors and a few for the table would be good but we have enough stuff for the walls and the ceilings already" Larten explained.**

"**That is a relief Larten but it will still take ages to hang all of this stuff up though, we need a team of people who have not got any duties to decorate the halls for us as we have enough to do. Have you sorted out the menus yet?" I asked.**

"**I have done some and I have sent out the hunting party with strict instructions to bring back everything that they can find to make a major feast including fresh fruits and nuts as they are plentiful in the summer" Larten explained.**

"**At least that is sorted out and that means that I do not have to worry about the food. I am dealing with the drinks and the entertainment and speaking of entertainment we need to rehearse our songs Larten as you do not know the words to the songs that I have chosen" I explained.**

"**Yes we must rehearse that is for sure but right now we need to pass this chest over to the decorating crew" Larten said.**

"**Well who is in charge now? Obviously Gavnur is not well enough to do it so shall we ask Vanez to step in?" I asked. **

"**Yes that would be a good idea, Vanez is sensible enough to run a decorating crew" Larten agreed. **

"**Well that is sorted then and now we have to go and practice our songs as neither of us has anything else to do" I replied and I fetched my battery powered CD player and my dusty, old CD case. **

**I had decided to sing a song by Olly Murs that I had changed the lyrics to, a song by Britney Spears and a song by Christina Aguilera. Larten had chosen to sing a duet with me which was a Disney song with altered lyrics, a song by Shane Ward and another song that had altered lyrics by Busted. **

**It was fun to practice and I was looking forward to singing live for the clan. **

"**My name is Sarah, nice to meet you can I tell you Larten? I looked around there's a whole lot of vampire Generals but not like you, you fight so well yeah. I was wondering if you and I could spend a minute on the Bars up close getting lost in it and I just want you to duel with me tonight" I sung. **

**Then Larten came in with his song.**

"**That is what I took the Trials for, even though it is a real bore and you can call me crazy I know that you crave me. You are who I took the Trials for, girlfriends I have had plenty but not like you Sarah Crepsley" **

**It was so much fun singing but the Disney song was the hardest as I was meant to sing it with Larten but it was hard to alter the lyrics to it. We had picked the song "A whole new world" from Aladdin. I changed most of the lyrics but it was hard to sing.**

"**I can show you my clan, full of darkness and shadows. Tell me Sarah now when did you last let your scars decide? I can open your eyes and take you up to the mountain over hillsides and rivers on a dangerous vampire ride, a whole new world, a new vampiric point of view. No one to tell us no or where to go or say we are only humans" Larten sung then I came in with my part.**

"**A whole new world, a new vamptastic point of view, when I am in the clan it is all a plan let me share this whole new clan with you" I continued.**

**Then we both sung the last bit.**

"**Every Trial a challenge, every moment dangerous, I will take you anywhere there is time to spare, let me join this whole new clan with you, a thrilling chase, and a wondrous place for you and me" We sung in this bit in unison.**

"**That was good. We have got a good version going there so we just need to practice it now until it is perfect" I said.**

"**I agree but it is hard to do and this song is not very vampiric" Larten moaned.**

"**Well it is kind of vampiric and it will show the clan a new side to us that they have not seen before" I replied.**

"**Alright, alright if you insist upon this then I will do it but we will not live it down. Mind you I am sure that the clan would rather here us singing together instead of other noise" Larten said.**

"**Yes that is a good point" I said.**

**We continued to practice all of our songs until we had them perfect and then we gave a small performance to our closest friends so that we could get their honest opinions.**

"**Well what do you think?" I asked after we finished singing our duet. **

"**That was a surprise but it was very good. I liked that version and it shows that you really care for each other" Seba said.**

"**Yes I also think that it was a good performance. If you looked at each other when you sing your individual bits to each other it would look better but that is my only point" Vanez said.**

"**Yes I thought that too but I thought that you had to face the audience when you sing" I said.**

"**Yes but if it is meant to be romantic then you face each other as then it looks more effective but the song sounds great" Vanez replied.**

"**Thank you for the feedback, it is appreciated" I said.**

**After our performance we sorted out a few other things and then we had more free time so I was able to practice one of my solo songs as it was hard to perform. I started singing it out loudly to myself whilst I tried to get it to sound right as I was going to sing it without any form of backing music. So I started to sing my version of a Christina Aguilera song called "Reflection"**

"**Look at me you may think that you see who I really am but you will never know me. Every night it is as if I am in a Trial, now I know that if I wear a mask I can fool my guards but I cannot fool my clan. Who is that vampiress that I see? She is staring back at me. When will my reflection show who I am inside? I am now in a clan where I have to hide my scars and what I believe in but somehow I will show the clan what is inside my veins and drink blood for who I am. Who is that vampiress that I see? She is staring straight back at me, why is my reflection someone that I do not know? When will my reflection show who I am inside?" I finished my song on a very high note that I managed to hold until everybody who had obviously heard me without me realising started clapping. **

**I was quite embarrassed but I had been singing loudly and everybody who passed my quarters must have heard me practising my big ballad. **

"**Sarah has a remarkable voice and it has been a long time since we had somebody here who could sing like her without any backing at all. I heard Larten singing too and together they sound brilliant" I heard Seba say to Vanez. **

**I was so pleased that everybody appreciated my voice and I knew that our anniversary party was going to be brilliant. I was really looking forward to it and as I could have whatever I wanted I was expecting the best of everything. **


	25. The Anniversary Party

**Chapter 25 the Anniversary Party**

**The night of the anniversary party arrived and everybody was dressed in their best clothes just like they were for our blessed mateship ceremony. The halls were decorated with all sorts of banners and ribbons that had been hung up from every corner of the room. **

**I was pleased to see a good number of guests who had turned up to celebrate our anniversary. The guests were not all clan members either as the whole Cirque Du Freak in its entirety had come to party. **

**I had not met all of the Cirque Du Freak members so it was so cool to meet them as some of them had amazing abilities. One girl who was about twelve could manipulate fire in her hands. She could surround herself with a fire ball and step out of it unharmed. It made me watch her skills in awe as I had never seen anything quite like that before. **

**Sive and Seersa the twisting twins came along, they were women now and not the teenagers who I had known when I travelled with the Cirque Du Freak. They had grown up a lot and they had aged but of course I looked the same. Then I saw Evra Von the snake man and his family, I was glad that they had made the trip as I missed Evra and so did Prince Darren as Evra and Prince Darren had been best friends for a long time. **

**When I had mingled with the guests for a while the band started playing and then the fun started. Everybody was dancing and having a good time which was good except for David who was at the party but he was in shackles and he was under guard in case he tried to escape. He was however on his best behaviour even though he was not really dressed for the occasion as he was still a prisoner at the end of the night. **

**I enjoyed the feast that had been provided for us, we had tonnes of food and drinks, everybody tucked into roasted meats and other things. I had made a vat of soup for everybody to share and there was so much alcohol floating around that soon everybody was tipsy and the alcohol kept on flowing so that everybody could drink and party until the dawn came. I knew that everybody was going to be hung over but nobody turns down free champagne even vampires like to celebrate in style sometimes. **

**I had to remember not to drink too much as I had to sing and after the party was over I obviously had to go to bed and celebrate my anniversary with Larten on my own with him so I did not want to be too inebriated. **

**The time came for me to sing my songs and I was not at all nervous. I stood up on our makeshift stage and I started my first song which was the Olly Murs song "Dance with me tonight" with a few lyrical changes.**

**Larten came up on stage halfway through my song and I was able to sing it to him then as my song was all about asking Larten to duel me and how I had seen him on the Bars all alone looking like he wanted to duel and that he did not care that he was alone up there. **

**Next I sung with Larten as we did our ballad next. It was hard to keep focused as I got all emotional because the lyrics meant a lot to both of us.**

**Finally we finished off the rest of our songs amongst the cheers and cries for encores from the crowd and when it was all over we got a standing ovation so Larten scooped me up as if he was on ice and he held me up high and spun me round to show me off amidst all of the cheering and clapping from the drunk and entertained vampires. We took our bows and we sat down as we needed to get our breath back as we had held the last note for a few bars so that it sounded really good. **

**I loved singing as it was one of my favourite hobbies and when I got such a positive response it made it all worthwhile. I had practiced hard and it paid off. I continued to party until I could not stand up anymore. I danced until I was exhausted. I collapsed into a seat and drunk a barrel of water to counteract the alcohol that I had consumed. **

**Eventually I got to my feet with help and staggered up the stairs to my quarters. I collapsed on my bed and I was a mess. I was very drunk and I could not really think straight as I had drunk so much. **

**I had not really intended to drink so much but my weakness was raspberry sours with lemonade. I had drunk a lot of it and though it was not that strong I had drunk about two bottles of it which was way more than what I was supposed to have drunk. **

**If I thought that I was drunk though I only had to look at Larten who was passed out next to me as he had got totally wasted and he was so drunk that he had to be carried up to our quarters, I staggered with help but there was no way that either of us could mate so I did the only wise thing and slept off the effects of my raspberry sours and champagne. **

**I had insisted upon getting bottles of very expensive champagne that cost around two thousand pounds for twelve bottles, we needed a lot to share out so we spent a huge amount of money on getting the very best as Larten had told me that I could have the very best that money could buy. **

**I was so drunk it was ridiculous but it had been my fault as I had not controlled myself. I fell asleep on my bed next to Larten and he was totally dead to the world so he did not even stir when I moved next to him and curled up to sleep off my drinking session. **

**I heard a lot of banging around and that woke me up, I woke up with a thumping headache and I felt very sick but I was alright, I just had a hangover. I had not had a hangover for a long time so it felt dreadful but I only had myself to blame as no-one had forced me to drink as much as I had done. I was so weak when I woke up, I felt very ill and the thought of eating made me feel even sicker but I knew that I had to in order to get over my hangover. **

**I have no idea as to why I drunk so much but I was celebrating and I forgot about how much I had actually drunk so I drunk more and more until I was staggering everywhere and that is when I retired to bed with help. **

**When Larten eventually woke up he was a bit dizzy and he could not work out how he had got into his quarters so I explained it to him.**

"**You were carried up here by Seba and Vanez as you passed out. You drunk so much ale and champagne and I drunk what seemed like two bottles of raspberry sours and champagne so I staggered up here with help. You were totally unconscious so I curled up beside you and slept off most of my hangover but you are still a bit wobbly on your feet" I said.**

"**Why the hell did I drink so much? I was supposed to stay sober and so were you so that we could mate but obviously that did not happen" Larten replied.**

"**Well it does not matter. It is not the end of the world if we did not mate" I said naïvely.**

"**It certainly does matter as it is traditional because we are supposed to reaffirm our bond and then we are supposed to spend a few days together like this as part of the ritual" Larten replied.**

"**I did not realise that. I thought that it was just part of the celebrations but I did not realise that it was an actual ritual" I replied feeling stupid because I had not remembered how important it was. **

"**Well we can postpone until we have recovered fully from our alcoholic drinking session" Larten said.**

"**I agree, I need to train anyway as I am a bit podgy and my curves are not as defined as they once were but soon I will be back to the hourglass figure that I am supposed to be" I replied.**

"**I do not want you getting too thin but you do need to be a little bit more curvaceous as it is necessary to keep up your luscious looks" Larten replied.**

"**Thank you for that Larten. I know that I have neglected myself recently but that was only because I was so busy but now I have free time that I can use to train" I said.**

"**That is good to hear, I am hungry and I do not know about you but I need a good feed" Larten said.**

"**I think that I need a feed too but I have not thought about it so it would be good to get some fresh blood in me" I replied.**

"**I agree let us go and feed as we both need it and the blood here is not the freshest, we need a direct feed" Larten said as we both stood up and tried to get rid of our dizziness due to the fact that we were still kind of hung over, however the vampire blood in our veins had helped us to recover quicker than a normal human would have recovered.**

**I was still suffering slightly from my hangover when we decided to leave the mountain and go out for a feed, I needed blood and I was craving it so I had to feed and soon or I would grow weak, lose my powers, age quickly and die as was the fate for all vampires who did not feed regularly. **

**I set off at a medium flitting speed as I would have toppled over with motion sickness due to the alcohol if I had gone any faster than what I was going already. Larten followed close behind me and soon we were racing each other across the fields and over the mountain paths until we reached the nearest town where we would sneak into a side street and take a rest to get our breath back before we would proceed to climb up a wall, break into a home, feed ourselves on fresh, warm, delicious blood and leave before the dawn came. **

**I remember climbing up the wall until I reached the window and then I opened it and pulled myself into the bathroom, then Larten pulled himself in through the window also. We exited the bathroom and we were on the landing with three bedrooms in front of us. I headed to the nearest bedroom and opened the door, I saw a girl asleep in the bed she looked like she was in her mid-teens or early twenties. I went over to her and I took my fill, Larten was in the other room feeding on his victim and then I heard a thudding noise coming from up the stairs so I healed the wound that I was feeding from quickly and made my exit but Larten was not so lucky as the guy had caught him in the act and assumed that he was a burglar. **

**The police were called and Larten was carted off in the back of a police car. He would have flitted but that would un-covered what he was so he acted like a human and went quietly also the guy had a gun which could cause serious damage if Larten put up a fight. **

**I followed the police car at a safe distance and watched as Larten was taken into the station and booked into the custody suite until he could be interviewed. **

**I walked into the police station and went up to the reception desk.**

"**I believe that you arrested my husband for burglary" I said.**

"**Name" The policeman said.**

"**Sarah Crepsley and my husband is Larten Crepsley" I explained.**

"**Let me check the books. Ah yes a Mr Crepsley was indeed brought in to our custody suite. He stands charged with breaking and entering, assault and burglary which are not misdemeanours" The gruff policeman said.**

"**That is not good. What happens now?" I asked.**

"**Well in the morning your husband will be interviewed and formally charged but for now he is locked in one of our custody suites" The policeman explained.**

"**I want to see him. I hope that there are no windows as my husband has a severe sun allergy" I explained.**

"**Well he didn't mention it and there aren't any windows anyway" The policeman said.**

"**I still want to see him though" I insisted.**

"**Sorry it's against policy" The policeman said.**

"**When will he be released?" I asked.**

"**If bail is granted then tomorrow but that is all I know" The policeman grumbled.**

"**Oh right well I will come back tomorrow after the sun has gone down as I too have a bad sun allergy" I explained.**

"**Alright I will let the custody sergeant know" The policeman said and I left the police station and returned to the mountain alone. **

**Meanwhile back in the police station there was a huge commotion in the custody block. Larten had decided to escape by breaking the roof tiles of his cell, pulling himself up through the gap and escaping through the ventilation shaft and out onto the street. **

**The policemen tried to stop him from escaping but of course Larten was too strong and too fast for them, he hopped from one roof to another until he was out of sight then he flitted back to the mountain at top speed where I caught sight of him and it was a bit of a surprise but I knew that Larten would stay in a police cell for long if he had the chance to escape. **

**Larten told me how he had escaped and it was very ingenious, it was lucky that Larten could jump high and grab onto the ventilation pipes that he could shimmy along until he got out onto the roof via the attic space that had been used to store all of the police case files of the last fifty years. **

**Then all Larten did was kick the attic roof and it crumbled, he climbed through the gap and hopped from one roof to another before he simply jumped down onto a wheelie bin and set off at a full flit back to us here in the mountain. I was impressed and the police would never find him here as we were like a hundred or so miles away. **

**The police would never solve the case I thought to myself as I clambered into bed next to Larten who was upset that he had ripped his cloak when he was escaping from the police custody suite. **

"**You should have escaped in another way, you could have opened the door with your static charge rather than bursting through the roof and ripping your cloak in the process" I said.**

"**It would have made too much noise and anyway I wanted to get out into the fresh night air rather than running through a maze of corridors and locked gates" Larten replied.**

"**That is fair enough and besides I am glad that you escaped as now we can catch up on our lack of rituals" I said.**

"**Alright then although I am afraid that as I consumed so much alcohol I may not be able to perform to my greatest ability but I will still give it a good go" Larten replied.**

"**Well there is no point if you are not up to your highest standards" I complained.**

"**That is fair enough but I have missed you and we did refrain for a while so that it would be better for us both" Larten explained.**

"**I am not at my best standards either but I still want it badly enough to give it a go" I retorted.**

"**I guess it is like blood in the sense that if you do not get any for a while when you do get some you take more and the release is so much more powerful than what it would be normally" Larten said.**

"**Yes that is what I thought but we can hold off until we are both completely prepared" I replied.**

"**But I want it now for I cannot wait any longer. It has been too long since we became as one entity and shared a moment of pure excitement between the two of us my dear" Larten said.**

"**Alright then if that is what you want then fine but we must find somebody to do our duties for us as we will be unavailable for the next few evenings" I replied.**

"**Let them sort it out between themselves. I will put a symbol on the door that symbolises that we are taking part in our bonding ritual then no one will disturb us until we emerge after the ritual is complete" **

"**Oh right what symbol is that?" I asked as I had not heard of it before.**

"**It is a circle with twisted edges like a rope and in the middle of it there is like an infinity symbol that represents two people coming together as one for ever" Larten explained.**

"**Oh right you had better paint it upon the door as I have not heard of this particular symbol" I explained.**

"**I will do it now and then we will not leave this room until the ritual is complete" Larten said.**

"**What about food and going to the loo?" I asked sounding stupid.**

"**That is permitted but only at certain times of the night as this ritual is about us coming together and living as one entity in two separate bodies and after it is complete we will truly be blessed mates" Larten explained.**

"**What happens during the ritual?" I asked as it interested me.**

"**During the ritual we will mate and then we stay joined to each other so that we become one body and all of our fluids mingle together then the bond is sealed by repeating our vows to each other plus an additional vow which is to swear by all that is good and vampiric that we are blessed mates and that we will remain so until we die" Larten explained.**

"**How long do we stay joined to each other?" I asked.**

"**Until all of our fluids have been mixed together and that is when we will endure pleasure at the same moment so that we enter a state of sheer power that is uncontrollable" Larten said. **

"**So we basically orgasm at the same time and that will give us a feeling that neither of us has experienced" I replied.**

"**Yes if you want to think of it like that but it means more than that to me" Larten said.**

"**Alright so when does this ritual take place?" I asked.**

"**Whenever we decide that it is appropriate" Larten answered.**

"**Oh right, then that is alright with me. It sounds like I am going to have a lot of fun in this ritual and I hope against hope that I am not too loud when I show my appreciation to you when you and I hit the height of our orgasms" I said sounding a bit apprehensive.**

"**Well that is going to be a challenge but I hope that you have learnt some control over your vocal appreciation as this is going to be very powerful and I doubt that I myself will be able to control my voice" Larten said in response.**

"**Well then does it really matter what others think if we are performing a ritual?" I asked.**

"**Well not if they see the sign because it means that there will be some disturbances as it comes with the ritual, if they are not happy then they can leave the mountain" Larten said decisively. **

"**Alright if that is what you think then I will not hold back my vocal appreciations as long as you deserve them for I am not one to fake my emotions and you will know if I am enjoying it or not" I explained.**

"**How long has it been since you screamed out for more at my skilled hands?" Larten asked me.**

"**It has been a while because the last time was when Gavnur made that comment when I was in the medical wing" I explained although I was a bit unsure.**

"**We were in the Halls of Sport not that long ago and you seemed to take to that new routine quite nicely. That was fun and you know that it was good" Larten replied.**

"**I enjoyed it but it was not too powerful as we were not really going all out like normal" I replied.**

"**Well this time there will be no holding back and I will do whatever I can to make you beg for more before I give it to you as I am planning to actually go inside you fully instead of only half way like I normally do as I think that you can take it now" Larten said.**

"**Oh right well that would give me more sensation for a fact and that in turn would make it more powerful for me and as a result of that I would definitely appreciate your skills" I replied.**

"**Well in that case I will use all of my skills to make our ritual worth doing. I admit that I have held back until now some of my specialities that I should have used but you enjoy it so much already there was no need to use them until now, now it is time to use all of my skills in order to really make you appreciate my talents" Larten said. **

"**I am so looking forward to our ritual now Larten" I said.**

"**I expect that you are and I swear to you now that if you do not scream out my name and beg for more you can leave me and sleep with whoever that you feel will satisfy your needs" Larten said.**

"**Well you sound very confident about your abilities so I will hold you to that" I replied.**

**Then we heard somebody coming towards the door of our quarters. I opened the door and in walked Seba. **

"**I heard your conversation and I am here on behalf of your neighbours as they are not happy that you are intending to be very vocal during this ritual" Seba said.**

"**Well I cannot help it if my blessed mate is good at what he does" I said.**

"**Yes Seba, you are no longer my mentor and as such you cannot tell me not to perform our bonding ritual if we wish to" Larten said.**

"**Just please try not to be deliberately disruptive and if you really want to be vocal then save it for the woods" Seba said.**

"**No way Seba am I going to hold back for you or anybody else. The sign is on the door to give fair warning and if that is not good enough then they can get lost. Now if you do not mind Seba I have a blessed mate to satisfy" Larten said and with that Seba left leaving us alone in our quarters to do whatever we wanted and that meant performing this ritual. **

"**Right shall we start our ritual?" I asked.**

"**If you would like to then yes I think that we have waited long enough" Larten said in reply.**

**So we began our ritual and to start with it was just foreplay and then we really got into it and there was no holding back, Larten entered me fully and that caused me to gasp with shock but it felt so good and soon our bodies had joined together as one body. I did try not to scream too early but it was just too much and I had to tell Larten exactly what I was feeling at that precise moment in time.**

**I screamed out as I orgasmed and it threw me into a new sensation that was more powerful than what it ever had been and I could not control myself. **

**I was having the best sex that I had ever had and nothing compared to it. I hoped that Larten was enjoying it too; he seemed to be really into it as Larten was also breathing hard and he was really trying to make it fun for me. **

**I knew that I was not the easiest of people to penetrate but when Larten was inside me it was alright it just took him a bit of time before he hit a spot inside me that made me see stars and beg for more. It was pretty cool actually. **

**I loved doing this and we lasted for quite a while before we stopped and snuggled up together to sleep before we did the same again. **

**I was very stiff when I eventually woke up and I could not really move as my muscles had been pushed to their limits and now all I could do was sleep off the effects. I had not really been prepared for this ritual and as such I was not really up to doing much but I had to please Larten so I tried my best to recover quickly so that I could continue the ritual and get it out of the way so that I would be able to return to normal. **

"**Are you alright?" Larten asked me.**

"**I am very stiff and worn out but I think that I am OK" I replied whilst yawning.**

"**I went all out and I did not hold back, I know that you loved what I did to you because I have never heard you make noises like that before, it was almost as if I had made you enter Paradise and then I joined you there" Larten said.**

"**It did feel like I had indeed entered Paradise for a brief moment and then I returned back here only to feel like I was soaring across the sky with you flying next to me whilst we consumed one another in a flurry of passion, vampiric love and lust" I replied.**

"**Well we can do the same thing later as that seals the bond between us and if you thought that last night was good just wait until later. I will send waves of pleasure through you like you have never known before. I would not be surprised if you were to lose yourself in me and if that were to happen the only thing that you could do would be to scream out for more of me inside you and then I would of course finish you off in a manner that would make you beg me to do more to you until you came screaming again" Larten explained.**

"**It sounds like I will have an amazing night with you in here and I know how good you are because of what you did to me on our mateship night and last night was phenomenal I could not ask for anything better although I did ask for more because I wanted more of that sensation" I explained.**

"**I will give you as much as you ask me for as it is good for me too but of course my sensations are different to yours and besides my job is to give you pleasure, you do not need to worry about satisfying me as when I give you pleasure I get satisfaction from you screaming as it means that I have done my job properly" Larten said.**

"**I am scared that I am not giving you enough though because the height of your orgasm cannot be as good as mine is and that is not fair because you do all the work" I said.**

"**Do not worry about it my love. The whole point of this ritual is me showing you what I can do and it is also about you having a good time to reinforce and strengthen our bond" Larten replied.**

"**Alright then if that is OK with you. Of course I do not mind but can you please make the sensation that I get last as long as possible? I love it so much" I asked.**

"**I can certainly try to make it last longer before it fades and I have to start again" Larten said.**

"**Thank you I appreciate it as it is so damn good. When that feeling hits me and I scream out your name I get such a buzz and the release afterwards is indescribable, it is like you can satisfy me and I will not need it again for a while as it lasts so long. You truly are a wonder and you are so good at what you do that it makes me love you more each time that you do it to me" I explained.**

"**I am glad that I can keep you happy, I only hope that our fellow clan members do not get too disturbed by your screams for more" Larten replied.**

"**Well I cannot help myself and besides they know that this is traditional so it is not as though we are being deliberately annoying is it?" I replied.**

"**Yes I guess so. I am pretty tired but I have enough energy to last me through the night" Larten responded.**

"**Good because I need to make sure that our ritual is completed" I said.**

"**I agree. Have you any idea what the time is?" Larten asked me.**

"**None at all I am afraid but it is night time at least and that is about all I know. Why did you ask?" I asked.**

"**Only because I want to hunt and feed to restore my energy before tonight but we can only leave our room at certain periods of time and that is why I asked" Larten explained. **

"**Oh right I understand" I replied.**

"**I do not think that anybody would mind if we bent the rules a little. I am dying to feed again although I fed recently. You must feed too as part of the ritual is that we share a feed as a symbol of trust" Larten explained.**

"**Well there are not many humans around here and after the last feed that ended with you in a jail cell we will have to be very careful Larten" I replied.**

"**Yes I apologise for that but it was a total accident and I am lucky that we got off lightly" Larten replied. **

"**Yes we were very lucky. It is rare but it happens that we get caught whilst feeding and we will have to go to another town to feed as if we return to that one we will be caught and hunted or worse" I said firmly.**

"**You are sounding more like me all the time. I have to sometimes think to myself what to say next because you say what I would have said" Larten replied.**

"**Well that is what happens when you know somebody as well as what we know each other" I said.**

"**Yes and we have been together for a long time, it must be going on fifteen years or it seems that long" Larten said.**

"**Well we met in 2011 when I was twenty one and now I am a lot older but I do not look like it, I lost track of my age but I must be in my thirties by now, I mean all of the Cirque Du Freak performers have grown up and they were teenagers or children when I knew them and Jodie is all grown up now too and she has settled into her life as a vampiress quite well" I explained. **

"**Well you must be at least thirty five but you look like you are twenty five because of the vampire blood in your veins" Larten said. **

"**I figured that out for myself, I cannot believe how long it has been. I mean we travelled the world with the Cirque Du Freak for ages; the UK was the best although the theatres that we performed in were not always in the best of conditions. We have been in the mountain for a long time and maybe we should leave and return to the Cirque Du Freak as I miss them awfully and I love performing" I explained.**

"**Well yes I think that Mr Tall could do with us in the line-up, he has had low ratings recently and if we go back then the ratings might improve. There are so many new performers now that the show has a wide variety of people that perform on a nightly basis. I miss performing but Madam Octa is a bit old to perform so we will have to perform without her as she needs her rest" Larten replied.**

"**Oh alright then Larten I was always able to do a solo performance but with you it felt right" I said.**

"**Well we could do solo performances but what would I do without Madam Octa?" Larten asked.**

"**Well you could do some illusions with your speed or some kind of hypnotism act" I suggested.**

"**Yes I could, you could be my assistant on stage and show off the props and things, I could do an escape act and pull chains apart with my hands" Larten continued. **

"**Yes that would be so cool and the audience would not expect it, using your vampiric abilities for good and for entertainment" I said.**

"**Well we will ask Mr Tall about it but he should be fine as he always likes his acts to come up with new material to enthral the audience" Larten said.**

"**Yes alright I am looking forward to it but we need to finish off our ritual and feed first" I replied. **

"**That is fine by me let us go hunting now. I am dying to feed as I should have taken more of that blood when I had the chance and now my hunger is controlling my thoughts and I am seeing red literally" Larten replied. **

"**Alright then Larten if that is what you want to do" I replied and we left our quarters and went out into the cold night air. There was snow on the ground and it was falling quite hard around us. **

**The usual path down from the mountain was blocked by a rock slide so we had to take the long way round through the woods which would take time and energy but there was no other safe path to take in this weather. Besides the trees would catch the snowflakes also they would provide shelter from the wind and sun when it eventually rose. It was really cold outside and even wrapped up in my thick travelling cloak I was freezing. **

**I was beginning to think that this was not a good idea but my urge to feed drove me on through the woods and into the gloomy, misty darkness and out onto the foot of the mountain. All I could see in front of me was mist and snow as it was very poor visibility outside. **

**I had not been outside in weather like this for a long time and it was damn near impossible to see where I was going to and I had to rely upon Larten's lantern and my own vision. I lost the path and I slipped on some black ice but I got stood up again and continued to walk until we reached the path that would lead us to the village where we could feed and refresh ourselves.**

"**I would flit but it is so dark and slippery it would be dangerous to do that so we have to walk and hope that the weather clears up" Larten said. **

"**OK then if that is your advice" I replied. **

"**It is my advice so you should follow it but we should find shelter as this weather is so bad and it is a lot worse than what I thought it was. It is too dangerous to continue on our trip tonight" Larten replied.**

"**I agree this storm is a lot worse than what I thought that it would be too, we cannot flit so we have to find a cave or something to hide in until the storm passes" I replied.**

"**I know of one place but it may not be any good anymore follow me" Larten said.**

"**Alright we can check it out anyway how far away from here is this place?" I asked.**

"**It is not far away but we have to walk up this thin slope and enter a secret cave that I discovered years ago when I was a lot younger. The only problem is that the path could have been worn away or blocked by a rock slide and the cave itself could be home to some wild beast most likely a bear so we have to be careful. However it is our only option as this weather is too much even for me and you know how tough I am" Larten replied.**

"**Well we can try and reach it and if not then there must be a bush or a rest spot somewhere near. I can smell bonfire smoke somewhere nearby" I said.**

"**Yes I can too but this wind could be bringing it from miles away so let us press on for this cave" Larten replied as he lifted me upon his back and walked at speed. **

"**I can walk you know" I said.**

"**I know but this path is treacherous, one slip could mean death so it is better that I carry you" Larten replied.**

"**Thank you. I appreciate your concern" I replied.**

"**I know you do but I must concentrate on this next leg of our journey so we should not talk" Larten said sternly.**

**I nodded and gripped on tighter to Larten's waist and neck with my arms and my legs as I did not want to fall off and hurt myself. **

**Larten walked very slowly along the path as it was so thin and slippery and it was a sheer drop to the bottom if Larten slipped but he did not slip and as he went along the path got wider and it was safer at the other end but Larten still carried me. **

"**We are not far away now but we have to climb up to that ledge as that is where the entrance to the cavern is. This rock is quite hard but your daggers will go through it however your nails will not so you have to use your daggers like ice picks" Larten said as he placed me at the foot of the rock face. Larten vaulted up and stuck his daggers into the rock and he climbed up like a bat climbs over the roof of a cave, Larten pulled himself up and then he held out his hands for me, I grabbed hold of his two daggers that were like handles and I stuck my own two daggers in the rock to act like foot supports whilst I vaulted up to the top, Larten gripped hold of me and pulled me up to where he was standing.**

"**How do we get our daggers back?" I asked.**

"**If I lower you down and hold your feet you can pull them out of the rock and pass them to me" Larten replied.**

**I did so and soon our daggers were safely back in their sheathes. We entered the cavern and I held up one of our lanterns to see some green stuff that was glowing on the walls around us.**

"**What is this green slippery stuff Larten?" I asked.**

"**That is luminous lichen and it will help us to see our way through this cavern into the part of it that I am looking for" Larten replied.**

"**Alright that is good then. What exactly is in this cavern?" I asked curiously.**

"**Apart from bats and maybe a bear there should be a lot of interesting things in here that I have collected and hidden over the years" Larten replied then he continued;**

"**Aha this is exactly what I am looking for, I remember leaving these marks on the wall to remind me where to go. We go ahead and turn left and then we will be there" **

"**It is about time Larten; we have been travelling for ages in that horrible weather. I am wet through and I need some dry clothes" I complained.**

"**I am soaked to the skin also and I am freezing but we can get dry by the fire" Larten replied.**

"**What fire?" I asked.**

"**The fire that I will build in a minute" Larten replied. **

**I inched a few steps more as I did not know what to expect and if there was a bear in here I did not wish to disturb it due to my previous run in with a bear which had nearly killed me. Larten held his lantern up and he entered the large cavern and I followed him. The cavern was clear of animals but it had been lived in as there was clothing inside and marks on the walls.**

"**Gavnur Purl must have found this place, the whole room smells like his deodorant spray stuff that humans use to keep clean" Larten moaned.**

"**Well it smells OK and not nasty and rather that than an angry hibernating bear Larten" I replied.**

"**Yes when you put it like that I agree but still I tried to keep this place a secret" Larten said.**

"**Why is that Larten?" I asked.**

"**Look around. What do you see?" Larten asked me.**

"**Spare clothing, a few chests and weapons" I replied.**

"**Exactly and what do you suppose is in the largest chest?" Larten asked.**

"**More clothing, maybe some of Arra's old belongings as I have no doubt that she came here with you" I replied.**

"**Well Arra did come here once and her marks are on the walls over there where she dug her nails in and got stuck" Larten said.**

"**Why would she dig her nails into the rock? You cannot climb up so what is the point?" I asked.**

"**Arra dug her nails in because I pushed her onto the wall and the force of her hitting the wall made her nails go into the rock when she put her hands out" Larten explained.**

"**Did you get into a fight?" I asked curious.**

"**Not exactly but it turned into a fight as Arra was furious that she had got stuck into the rock and she could not pull herself out so I pulled her out and took a lot of the wall with her, hence the pile of rocks over there" Larten replied. **

"**Is it safe? The wall will not collapse will it?" I asked.**

"**Of course it is safe. I repaired the wall long ago and now the fire is going you can have a look in that big chest over there" Larten said.**

"**Do you have the key?" I asked.**

"**Yes, here it is" Larten replied as he handed me a big, rusty key.**

**I opened the chest with caution and inside I saw something glittering. I took the lid off and stared at the contents. The chest was full of gold coins and jewels that I had never seen.**

"**Wow you never told me that you had a treasure hoard" I said smiling.**

"**I am telling you now and before you ask you can take your pick of the jewels as they are no use to me" Larten said.**

"**Seriously, I can have whatever I like?" I asked.**

"**As much as you want my love as what is mine is yours and now you understand why I wanted this place kept secret" Larten said.**

"**Of course I understand and I think that I will have this and these oh and those too" I said as I picked out a necklace, earrings and a pair of jewelled shoes. **

"**Very well if that is your desire and if you want anything else just take it as it is yours now. You can count this as your anniversary gift from me" Larten said.**

"**Thank you so much. How can I ever repay you? I could never give you anything that is equal in value to this" I replied smiling brightly as I put my new jewels on. **

**I could not believe that Larten had not shown me this place before now and it was only because of the storm that we had taken shelter here. I believed that if the storm had not been so bad we would not even have taken shelter so I may never have seen this place. **

"**I wish that I could have seen this place before now Larten" I said.**

"**I was waiting to see if you really loved me and I wanted to make sure that you were not using me for my wealth that I have accumulated and if you had have known about this place you may have tried to come here alone and then all kinds of problems could have arisen" Larten replied.**

"**That is fair enough and I can understand your point but now these gems are mine and as for the money I guess that half of it is mine and the rest is yours" I said.**

"**I said that you could have your pick of the jewels and what is mine is yours so if you want some of the money that is fine by me but it is so old it may not be worth anything in shops but you could sell it for scrap and get the scrap value, I understand that gold is valuable on the market currently" Larten replied.**

"**Well then that is what I will do when we go to the city. I will go into a jewellery shop and get it valued then they can melt it down and give me its value in cash" I explained.**

"**If that is what you want to do then that is fine because in the chest this gold is worthless" Larten replied.**

"**Thank you for that Larten. I am still wet through though. Are there any spare clothes in here that might fit me?" I asked.**

"**Only some of Arra's old shirts and maybe a skirt or two but she was so much more muscular than you I doubt that it would fit your tiny frame" Larten replied as he had a quick look around. **

"**Here this might fit you if I pull it tight and this will probably fit you but everything else is either moth eaten or slashed that is why it got left behind" Larten said as he handed me a corset and a skirt that had seen better days but it was better than wearing wet clothing. **

"**Well I am not really any good at putting corsets on so you will have to help me but the skirt is OK if I pull the ties at the front and tie them into a bow" I said.**

**I stood up and held the corset around me well Larten threaded it up and yanked it tight so that it would not slip down. **

"**How is that?" Larten asked.**

"**It is hard to breathe but it is better than being wet and cold" I replied with a gasp. **

"**I can loosen it slightly but that is the best that I can do until we can dry out our actual clothes. I am soaked but at least I have some of my clothing in here" Larten replied. **

"**Thank you anyway though. I am sure that I will manage but I do not feel right wearing Arra's clothes as it is a bit weird wearing your dead ex's clothes" I said.**

"**Well your clothes will be dry soon if I hang them over the fire on a string because heat rises" Larten said.**

"**I am starving Larten. What food did you pack for us to eat?" I asked.**

"**I did not pack any as we were going to feed I thought it was unnecessary, did you pack anything?" Larten asked me.**

"**Only some bread rolls and a jar of berry jam that I made but no meat and no blood" I replied. **

"**Well we will manage on bread and jam then until the storm passes and we can reach the city to feed" Larten replied as he took one of the bread rolls and toasted it on the fire which was going really well. **

"**At least we are out of the wet and we do not have to sleep under a bush or in a tree. Incidentally do you have a spare coffin in here for us to sleep in?" I asked.** **"Yes and no. I have a coffin but it is not mine it was Arra's and mine so you can see my predicament" Larten said.**

"**Well what is the problem? I am sure that Paradise has lots of coffins and Arra would not mind would she in this situation?" I asked.**

"**It is not that it is the fact that I swore to Arra that only me and her would ever use this coffin so by letting you sleep in it I am breaking my word to Arra. Had I known that Gavnur Purl had been in here before now I would have told him the same thing" Larten explained.**

"**I see your problem Larten but in this situation what is to be done?" I asked.**

"**Well I can sleep in the coffin and you could sleep next to it on the floor" Larten suggested.**

"**Larten why should I sleep upon the floor? I am your blessed mate and I am entitled to sleep next to you" I said in an angry voice. **

"**I cannot break my vow to Arra though Sarah, surely you must see that and besides I may have some spare bed linen in that chest. I can vaguely remember packing some in case the coffin was destroyed or too dirty to sleep in" Larten said as he had a look in another chest that was in the far corner of the room. **

"**I knew it. I have two pillows and a duvet cover thing in here. It is clean which is a bonus and we can sleep on that if you want to" Larten explained as he swiftly made up a bed for us both. **

"**Very well that is our sleeping arrangements sorted out and now we just have to wait until the storm passes over. We can play cards if you wish" I suggested. **

"**If that will pass the time quicker but I am pretty tired Sarah for I have come a long way tonight in that storm and I want to sleep sorry to be a bore" Larten said.**

"**I am pretty tired too actually but I have no idea how dark or light it is outside so when will I know when we can move on?" I asked.**

"**I will check the weather and then if it is a clear night I will wake you up but if it is not then we will sleep in until it is a clear night" Larten said. **

"**Alright that is a good idea. I am so tired but at least I am a bit drier now and these clothes are not too bad but I prefer my own" I replied as I lay down on the duvet and arranged my pillows. **

**Larten lay down next to me and snuggled up beside me. I was so cold but Larten put his arms around me and he kept me warm with his own body heat as he was much warmer than me. Even as a human I had always felt the cold and now I did not feel it as much but it was still cold in a stone cavern with only a fire for warmth. **

**I was so tired I just curled up and went to sleep immediately but Larten stayed awake for a while. He often watched me when I slept and sometimes I would wake up and see him watching over me, it made me feel safe but it was always a surprise to see Larten's deep blue eyes peering into my own eyes when I awoke. **

**I was soon warm and when I did wake up I felt better now that I was dry and Larten was holding me close to him. I saw that the fire was going out so I chucked another couple of logs on it to keep it going and then I fixed breakfast for us which consisted of the last four bread rolls and jam. I listened out for sounds of thunder but I could hear none and that meant that the storm may have stopped because it rained hard before the blizzard had started. I was relieved to see that my clothing had dried overnight and I put on my now dry clothes and I felt a lot better. I ventured down the cavern's entrance to see what the weather was like outside. It was very cold but at least the snow storm had stopped but it had stuck and everywhere was white for miles around. **

**I went back inside the cavern and Larten was still asleep so I left him to sleep whilst I ate my two bread rolls and jam. Larten stirred slightly and he rolled over but still I did not wake him, besides it was daytime outside and we could not go anywhere until night fell again despite the snow. **

**I tried to go back to sleep but I could not so I stayed up and went through all of the chests to see what Larten had in this cavern. Most were full of clothes or weapons but some had jewels in and some had bottles of wine in or what looked like wine anyway. I later found out that it was rum that had been stored to mature and then forgotten about. **

**I was starving so I decided to brave the snow and go for a hunt, I was so hungry that my animal instincts were kicking in and the urge to hunt was strong inside me. **

**I went hunting and I was able to bring back a small roe deer that would feed us for a day or two but it would not sustain us for long. I carried the deer back to the cavern, gutted it and skinned it then I jointed it and put it on a spit to cook before we ate it later. **

**The smell of the roasting venison must have been strong because Larten sat up in our makeshift bed and he looked hungry.**

"**What time is it?" Larten asked.**

"**It is about four pm I think, the storm has passed but everywhere is covered with snow. The whole place is white and it is bloody cold out there" I replied as I turned the venison slowly upon the spit. **

"**When did you get that meat?" Larten asked.**

"**Today, I went out when you were sleeping and I brought it down myself, skinned it and gutted it like you showed me and then I stuck a stick through it and put it upon the spit" I explained. **

"**Well it will keep us going for a while but you should not have gone out in the daylight" Larten said.**

"**Well we have to eat Larten and I was not gone for long. I caught the first thing I found and I dragged it back here ready for you to eat when you woke up" I explained.**

"**It is better than bread rolls and jam anyway I need meat as much as you do. What did you do with the blood?" Larten asked me.**

"**I drunk some of it and the rest I bottled for you to drink whenever you want it" I replied.**

"**Good, I am so hungry for blood I need it" Larten said. **

"**I thought that so I have tried to provide for you" I replied.**

"**I know and I am very grateful to you" Larten said as he tucked into the blood that I had left for him, I had drunk a lot but I left Larten a good bottle full as he was bigger than me and his hunger was greater than mine. **

**After we had both had a drink and after we had ripped into the venison carcass and devoured it we decided to take a walk in the snow as the sun was weak and it was nice to walk around in the snow. We had a snowball fight and then we built a snow vampire (The same as a snowman but he had a cape on and a sword by his side instead of a hat and scarf). The snow vampire was fun to build and it made me think of my childhood and how me and my brother had built snowmen over the Christmas holidays before I had been turned into a vampiress. I wondered how my brother was; he would be quite a lot older now. Did he have a girlfriend? Did he do well at school? Was he a young father? All of these questions haunted me and I am sure that he often thought about me and what I would be doing if I had still been alive as he obviously thought that I was dead and that I had been dead for a long time. **

**The snow vampire stood out in the light and it looked really good. I was pleased with my efforts and he stood tall and proud over the entrance of the cavern. **

"**That was a fun way to spend an evening Larten" I remarked.**

"**I have not built a snow vampire before but when I was a boy I often built snowmen with my younger siblings whilst my dad was working and my mum was in the kitchen before I went out to work in that awful silk factory" Larten said.**

"**Well what shall we do now?" I asked.**

"**We could try and make our way onto the city and feed if you want to as the weather has cleared up now and it is not too cold" Larten replied.**

"**Alright then can we leave our stuff in the cavern if we do not need to take it with us?" I asked.**

"**Yes as we will be returning here as it is a long way back to the mountain and we would not make it tonight" Larten replied.**

"**Well we should take our weapons and our empty bottles and the rest we can we can leave behind as we have our fur lined cloaks on and we will not be much warmer than what we are right now but I do have one more gift for you that I forgot about. Wait here for a moment" Larten said and I waited as he disappeared into the cavern and he returned with a package which he handed to me. I untied the string and un-wrapped the paper carefully and inside the package was some kind of shawl but it was pure fur, it had a satin lining and a jewelled clasp on it. I held it up in the dim light and I draped it around my shoulders under my cloak. It fit me perfectly and I felt instantly warmer and I felt quite special that I had something so fine to wear.**

"**Do you approve of my gift?" Larten asked.**

"**Of course I approve. This is really nice and I am warmer already. What fur is it?" I asked.**

"**You are wearing artic fox and mink that has been mixed together and made into this garment" Larten explained.**

"**The jewelled clasp is great too as it matches my cloak pin I feel so privileged and honoured but seriously you should not spoil me as I can never pay you back for it" I said. **

"**Enough with the whole pay back thing you have paid me back already because you gave me a child, you give me unconditional loyalty and love which is all that anyone could ask for vampire or otherwise" Larten replied. **

"**Well as long as you are sure as I would hate to accept these gifts and then have nothing to get for you in return" I said.**

"**Well I require nothing and besides it is my duty to take care of you my dear and that is what I intend to do" Larten replied as we headed to the city where we would be feeding. **

**We were miles away and we could have flitted but flitting in snow was not easy because thick snow stops your feet from moving as quickly as what they should do when you flit and besides we would leave tracks which could be confusing to any humans as you would see odd footsteps and blurred lines so we had to walk the whole way and it seemed to take forever. I had the energy but not the patience and I got fed up of walking. I hated walking and by the time we arrived at the city limits I was exhausted and I could barely hold onto the wall that I dug my nails into and scaled up in order to enter my victim's bedroom. **

**I was so thirsty that when I fed I drank lots of blood and I did not want to stop but I had to. I healed the wound up and then I started scouting around for another victim. **

**It made me think of my times in the sewers with the old vampaneze troupe and how I had fed back then with no remorse and no control over the amount of blood that I took in. Larten had his fill and then we went to another house and fed again as I was still begging for blood and I needed to keep my hunger at bay. **

**I finished feeding and I was alright afterwards because I had been feeling tired and weak as I had not fed for a while and now that I had filled up on fresh blood I would be strong enough to travel back to the cavern before we headed back to the mountain. **

"**I needed that Larten, I was feeling weak" I said.**

"**I saw how much blood that you consumed and I was worried that would take too much but you have learnt to control yourself and you seem to know when to stop which is good as I would hate for you to kill a human unnecessarily" Larten said.**

"**I have killed before and so have you so it would be good to avoid it if we can" I replied.**

"**Anyway we have to focus on getting back to the mountain now as it is a long way and we have to get there before too long as the weather could turn bad again and then we would be stuck out in the open at the mercy of the Gods and the elements" Larten replied as we reached the entrance to the cavern and went inside to where it was warm and dry.**

**I was glad to sit down by the fire and warm up and now that I had a full belly I felt strong and healthy again. I had not fed for a while so it was good to have the sensation of blood running through me and I knew that I would not need to feed again for a while but I would feed if the hunger was inside me. **

**I was so pleased to return to the mountain. I was tired but I was happy and I was looking forward to seeing all of my friends again as I had been away for a few days and I had a lot of duties to catch up on. **

**I walked into the main halls and most of the clan were there but quite a few of them were missing as they had gone off on their own business or they had gone back to their own homes where they felt safe as when they were away from the clan and the stresses of the mountain it could be hard to adjust to a solitary life again. **

**I was hoping to return to the Cirque Du Freak but first I had to catch up on my duties and I had to catch up with the Princes as I had not seen them for a while. Also I wanted to show off my new jewellery and my other gifts that Larten had bestowed upon me including the fur shawl that had kept me very warm and dry when I had been travelling. **

**I was happy to be back inside the mountain and I had been gone for nearly a week or so I thought. Prince Darren had a surprise for us when we arrived back to the mountain he had finally decided to take a mate and it was unexpected but it was good news as we were quite short of vampiresses so to have a new addition was always a good thing. This new vampires was named Julia and she was quite feisty but she had a good heart and Prince Darren thought that she was ideal as she was young, goth, single and she had no family to speak of so she did not have to fake her death which was always a good thing. **

**Julia was welcomed into the clan but the whole time that she was with us she was so fussy and snobbish that she wound the Generals up and she refused to do duties as it was beneath her or so she said so we all had to work extra hard to clean up her mess that she left everywhere as she had never kept anything tidy and her quarters were chaos. **

**Julia had clothing and jewellery scattered everywhere, weapons and other ornaments littered the limited shelving and the floor was covered in dust where she never swept up or cleaned it. **

**Prince Darren was kept at arm's length and Julia was only ever seen with him at meals or when she wanted something so it was not a very harmonious mateship and frequent fights broke out between the pair of them. **

**The couple fought over spending money as Julia expected the best of everything and the normal clan stuff was not good enough for her so she expected Prince Darren to buy her all new stuff which was unfair as Julia never gave Prince Darren anything, they also argued over the general lack of effort to keep their shared quarters clean. **

**Julia also had her own individual quarters which were always a mess and Prince Darren's quarters were beginning to look like a tornado had been in there and destroyed everything as Julia treated her shared quarters as another storage compartment with little regard for Prince Darren's belongings.**

**Julia was meant to clean up and serve Prince Darren as she was his mate but Julia left him to do it all while she sat upon his throne and demanded stuff from the Generals all of the time and they of course had to obey her as it was their duty. **

"**Honestly Larten I do not understand why Prince Darren does not just end his term with Julia and get back to normal as she leaves a mess everywhere she goes and I end up cleaning it" I complained one evening. **

"**That is not fair but it is up to Prince Darren and we cannot get involved. How messy is it?" Larten asked.**

"**Come with me and I will show you" I said and I took Larten to Julia's personal quarters. I unlocked the door and walked inside.**

"**This is not acceptable, I would go mental if you left our quarters in such a state but Prince Darren has no fight in him. He should order Julia to clean up but he is too kind and too in love to care" Larten said.**

"**I know and I have to clean this up. I mean look at this place it is a disaster zone. The carpets are blood stained, the coffin lid is broken, the floor is covered in mess and there are items of clothing and weapons everywhere and yet the cabinets and wardrobe is empty" I said as I stepped over a pool of blood and picked up a dagger that should have been sheathed. **

"**This is a total disgrace but we can do nothing about it" Larten said.**

"**I know and now I have to clean this place. Julia said that she wants it perfect by tonight apparently" I replied angrily.**

"**Well I will help you but it is not fair and if you want me to get Prince Darren and show him I will do" Larten replied as he left to go and find Prince Darren. **

**I started to mop up the blood and I put the weapons away in the weapons cabinet. I scrubbed the floor and then I repaired the coffin lid, I hung up the clean clothes and washed the dirty ones and all the time Prince Darren was watching me so that he could see how much effort that I had to put in to keep his mate's quarters clean. **

"**It has to stop Darren, I cannot keep cleaning up after your mate as I have my own duties to perform and I am meant to be going back to the Cirque Du Freak soon" I said when I had finally finished.**

"**I know and I will deal with it now that I can see how bad it actually is. My quarters are exactly the same and it is beyond a joke now" Prince Darren replied.**

"**You mean that your quarters are in a mess like this too?" I asked.**

"**Yes except I have no blood spilt in there thankfully as it stains everything which you know" Prince Darren replied. **

"**Well at least now you can see how bad the mess actually was and how hard I have to work to keep your mate happy and clean" I replied. **

"**Well I will deal with it after I have cleaned up my own quarters for the third time this week already" Prince Darren replied as he left. Then Larten came back and when he saw how clean Julia's quarters were now that I had cleaned them he was shocked at how bad that it had been before I stepped in and cleaned up. **

"**Well you have certainly worked hard in here and it looks so much better but how long will it last?" Larten asked.**

"**Hopefully a while as I am not here to deep clean quarters every night but that reminds me I still have to dust ours and clean the carpets as they have not been done for a while and they are looking a bit dull" I said.**

"**There is no need as I have already done it. I figured that you would be busy in here for a while so I cleaned out our quarters for you" Larten replied.**

"**Are you telling me that you actually cleaned out our quarters so that I would not have to do it? I am very grateful for that Larten and I will return your favour later when I am not so tired" I replied with a naughty look in my eyes. **

"**Well I had to do something and I thought that if I did that then we would get some spare time alone later" Larten replied. **

"**Well we will get some time alone later on but right now I have to go and eat as I am hungry and besides it would be good to catch up with my friends downstairs" I replied.**

"**Alright well I will go and have a shower as I need one and then I will join you in the halls as I need to eat as well" Larten said and he vanished as he went to the shower room and I was left alone to eat and hang out with the clan members who were still left in the mountain. **

**I stuffed myself on fresh rabbit and jugged hare then I washed it all down with a good barrel of dark ale that I had missed whilst on my travels as barrels of ale were hard to carry at the best of times. **

**I was bored in the halls as there was nobody around. I had not realised just how few vampires had remained at the mountain and the ones who were left were either old or they were Generals who I did not really know to speak to. **

**I felt quite lonely and even the Princes were not around as they all had things to do and I felt like I was in the halls alone until Larten turned up and joined me. **

"**So few vampires are left here at this time of year, do you think that we should cut our losses and join the Cirque Du Freak now?" I asked.**

"**Well we could do that but I have had a better idea however it will take a lot of organisation and if we can pull it off it will provide entertainment for everybody here" Larten said.**

"**What is this great idea then Larten? You have got my attention" I asked.**

"**I was thinking about turning two of those abandoned adjoining halls into a theatre and a back stage area so that we can put on plays and musicals to entertain the clan when we are all in residence. Of course we will make a few vampiric changes to classic stories" Larten explained. **

"**That is an amazing idea. That would be so cool and everyone would love it" I replied.**

"**Well then you had better get permission from the Princes in that case to renovate the halls, build dressing rooms, a costume department, a make-up room and a stage. A sound and lighting booth will be needed also" Larten said. **

"**Well it is your idea but I will certainly ask Prince Vancha and Prince Arrow when I see them next. Where are we going to get the materials from though? We need lots of things" I asked. **

"**That is what I thought that I could use my spare cash for. I have lots of money that I have saved in case you wanted or needed something big and since we have paid our debts off from our blessed mateship ceremony and our anniversary party we are rather rich" Larten said quietly. **

"**How rich Larten?" I asked grinning.**

"**Rich enough to live well and rich enough to build a theatre with all of the necessary equipment and rooms" Larten replied.**

"**So we have a few thousand pounds spare?" I asked.**

"**Yes you could say that Sarah but I do not like to brag about it in case we have poorer vampires asking to borrow money all the time as we would probably not get it back" Larten explained.**

"**I live well enough and I have my own money as I saved my Cirque Du Freak wages up so I will not need you to support me for a while" I said. **

"**That is fine. I have to spend my money on someone and besides you are my blessed mate so half of my wealth is yours anyway" Larten replied.**

"**Well that is fine but I spend money like water as you have seen in the past" I remarked.**

"**I know you do but it is fine if you have no debts and you can pay for it" Larten replied.**

"**I have no financial worries at the moment but it is good to know that we both have some savings in case of an emergency" I responded.**

"**Anyway we had better go and see the Princes now about this whole theatre idea" Larten replied and we left the halls and we headed straight for the Prince's Dome.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26 Building the Theatre**

**We arrived at the Prince's Dome and we were greeted by two burly guards who I had not seen before. **

"**State your business" One guard said.**

"**I am Sarah and I have to speak to the Prince's about an idea that my mate has had to turn two abandoned halls into a theatre. That way we can put on shows and plays to entertain the clan" I replied.**

"**Well that is a reasonable item of business. You have to forgive me but normally we get lots of vampires bothering the Princes over trivial matters" The guard replied.**

"**It does not bother me as I know that you are only doing your job. The safety and the security of the Princes is your number one priority" I said.**

"**That it is and I will not let another disaster happen like last time with that bloody traitor Kurda Smalt" The guard said as he led us into the Prince's Dome. The other guard waited outside as that was the customary procedure. **

"**Well it has been a long time since you have entered our Dome Sarah. What can we do for you?" Prince Darren asked in his formal, business like tone. **

"**Well Larten has had a brilliant idea to provide us all with some entertainment. Larten has thought that if we were to turn two of the adjoining abandoned halls into a theatre and a backstage area then we could put on plays and shows to entertain us when we have nothing else to do" I answered. **

"**That is a pretty smart idea. I am up for helping you build the stage if we can rope in a few others to help out, are you up for it too?" Prince Darren asked his fellow Princes.**

"**I will help out but all of the adjoining halls are used for Trials of Death training so we will be short of two training rooms if we do this" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**Can we spare two adjoining halls Sire?" Larten asked.**

"**I think that we could if we take the two in the east side and we clear out that old storage room and turn that into the costume department" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Shall we vote on it?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**All those in favour of this new theatre being built say aye" Prince Vancha said.**

"**Aye" I said.**

"**Aye" Larten said.**

"**Aye" said the Princes one after the other. **

"**That settles it then, the idea is accepted and a theatre we shall have" Prince Darren concluded. **

"**Thank you Sires. It is most appreciated" I replied. Just at that moment Julia came into the Prince's Dome. She marched straight up to Prince Darren and she sat upon his lap. **

"**So this is where you have been for all of this time" Julia said.**

"**I have had business to attend to in here and I have just agreed to a theatre being built to entertain us all when we have nothing to do" Prince Darren explained. **

"**Oh right well you could have come and popped in and said hello I have been on my own for ages bored and alone" Julia replied.**

"**I have been very busy in here but I am free now for a couple of hours so I will come and see you I swear it" Prince Darren replied. **

"**Fine then I will go and wait for you in the Halls of Sport" Julia replied and she left in a blur of blue and gold. Julia had been wearing this really nice dress with gold decoration and embroidery on it. **

**Julia had insisted on wearing only fine clothes and she had no everyday clothes so she always looked immaculate and she did give a good impression of the clan when she was not making a mess in her quarters. **

**Julia threw stuff everywhere, even her nicest clothes ended up on the floor so she was always asking for more stuff and Prince Darren feeling obliged to take care of her gave her a decent amount of money every week that she could use to buy clothing and other items with. **

**We left the Prince's Dome and we went to check out the two adjoining halls that we had available. The first hall was rather large and it had enough room to put seating and curtains in it but the other hall was smaller and it was just big enough to split into two separate dressing rooms, one for the ladies and one for the men. **

**I was looking forward to working and building the theatre but the best bit would be painting and decorating the halls and making the sets and props because that is what I am good at. I have always been a practical person so it made sense to the clan that by designing the props and making the costumes I would be playing to my strengths. **

**However until I knew what play we were doing I would not know what props or costumes to make so I started by getting out the stage and I put it together as we already had a stage but it was in pieces so I nailed it together, then I started work on the curtains. **

**I got some long lengths of blue cloth and I made the curtains that would hang in front of the stage. I stitched the curtains together and then I got the platform out that I needed to climb up so that I could attach the curtains in place to the curtain rail. **

**Meanwhile in the back stage area the dressing rooms were being constructed and the walls were being painted. A partition wall and extra doors were put in so that the men and women would have separate dressing rooms. I cleaned out the storage cupboard and knocked a wall through to extend it as the cupboard was not big enough to use as a costume department. **

**I helped out with the decorating and I was the one who took the carriage into town and loaded it with mirrors, make-up boxes and lights so that the dressing room would have mirrors and lights. I put the make-up boxes into the costume room and by this time the theatre was looking pretty good. I got Seba Nile and Prince Mika to scout around for chairs and benches that we could place in the new theatre so that the audience would have somewhere to sit when the performance was on. **

**I rigged up some lights and we did not have electricity so I spent three thousand pounds on a giant petrol generator that we could use to run the lights and other electrical equipment like the sound desk which was brand new and as nobody knew how to use it we left it until last. We needed to get a professional to set it up and use it. It was going to be hard finding a human who would be willing to work full time for us as a sound and lighting technician but we scouted around and we found a DJ who could do it for us but he charged a lot of money. **

**We persuaded him to join us permanently and that was his job in the Clan. The DJ was named Jamie and he was very talented at what he did but he hated being blooded and for him it was hell but he adjusted and he was soon happily feeding and he was under the guidance of Julia who wanted her own assistant so Jamie got the job. **

**After Larten had rigged up the lights we tried the generator and when it was running the lights clicked on and it was great. We had white spotlights that moved and we had coloured filter lights to cause effects on stage. **

**The sound desk was set up and it was brilliant, we already had microphones and other music gear so we plugged it in and it was such a crisp sound, the halls had great acoustics! **

**Eventually the theatre was ready and it looked amazing, it looked professional and it was fully furnished with everything that we needed. All that we had to do now was decide on what piece we would be performing first and who wanted to be in it.**


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27 The Sleeping Vampiress**

**I was exploring the new theatre and sweeping up some of the stone dust off of the stage when I found a screwed up piece of paper that had some dimensions and measurements scribbled on the back of it. I turned it over and it was a very old poster for a stage ballet of Sleeping Beauty which gave me an idea. **

**We could perform a stage production of Sleeping Beauty but vampirise it a bit and make it more to our tastes. I took the poster and I nailed it to our notice board so that the Clan would see it. I put a sign up beside it that said:**

**Coming Soon! The Midnight Theatre Company presents:**

**The Sleeping Vampiress**

**Auditions for parts will be held tomorrow night. Bring your best acting and yourself along if you want a part in this production. **

**Please note: actors will be singing live so the parts would suit singers as well. **

**Then I put up a list of the parts with a space next to it to see who wanted each part. **

**It was fun to see the Clan gather around and write their names by the parts and now I had to audition them to get the best actors for each lead, the best singers for the chorus and the best extras for the palace crowd scenes. **

**I was really hoping that everybody would get involved and that we would be able to do auditions and then a full read through of the script which I wrote. **

**I waited inside the new theatre for the auditioning vampires to arrive. It was a bit empty to start with and then lots of Generals turned up ready to perform. We had enough females to play the fairies and we had enough people to be in the crowd in the palace scenes. **

**I was pleased with the turnout and it was me and me alone who would decide upon who got which part and I had written some vampire comedy into it which was going to be really funny if they got it right. **

**When I was ready I let the vampires into the new theatre, they all had scripts and stuff with them ready to act out their particular parts for their audition. **

"**Right everyone lets have some order in here. I want all of the fairies over there, the lead males over there and the extras over there. The choir needs to be in the middle of the stage" I called out. Everybody moved and they got into their positions. **

"**Fairies first I think. Let's have Tabitha, Jessie and Hattie try out first from act one scene two" I said. The three vampiresses stepped forward and showed off their best acting skills. **

"**That was very good. Right let's see group two which is Julia and the other two over there" I called out and Julia stole the show, she was very talented. **

"**Right Julia, Jessie and Hattie you are the three fairies, you other ladies I want Tabitha as the Queen and Samantha I want you as the evil fairy lead role" I decided. Next it was onto the men's auditions and there were not many male roles, we had the king, the guards and the prince. **

**There were no shortage of vampires and Generals who wanted the roles so it was a really tough decision but eventually I picked Seba as the king, Larten as the prince and a bunch of Generals to act as palace guards. **

**I was playing the lead female as the sleeping vampiress herself as nobody had wanted the role and I needed to be in my own production also it made sense as Larten was the prince and that way we could have some real chemistry on the stage and it would look natural and not acted. Also I could rely upon Larten's singing voice and my own as we were both of a high standard. **

**I was looking forward to the actual run through of the piece and my script was pretty good. I had based it upon the 1958 Disney version of Sleeping Beauty but with a few changes to make it more vampiric. **

**Eventually it was time for the first rehearsal and it was kind of exciting to see the talent come together. **

"**Right everybody can I have your attention please?" I asked the assembled company of actors and choir members. **

"**I want to do a full run through of the piece with scripts if you need them and I want to see you all acting and taking this seriously" I continued.**

"**Alright let's do this thing" Tabitha said who was playing the queen.**

"**Right narrator off you go and remember to be clear" I said and Prince Mika stepped forward and began to narrate the story. **

"**Once upon a time in a mountain there lived a king and his blessed queen. Many years had this couple longed for a child and being vampires they knew that it could never be until one night their wish was granted and a daughter was born to the great rejoicing of the whole mountain. They named her Aurora and she filled their lives with moonshine and happiness. A great celebration was planned so that every vampire might show their loyalty to the infant princess and our story begins on this most joyful night" Prince Mika finished which was the choir's queue to come in with their first song and the extras would dance in celebration of the new princess being born.**

**Then the narrator continued with the next part of the story and then the fairies came in for their part.**

"**Little vampiress my gift is beauty" Julia said.**

"**Tiny vampiress my gift is the gift of battle skills" Jessie said.**

"**Sweet vampiress my gift is the gift of…" but Hattie did not finish her line as then Samantha came with her part.**

"**Well it is quite a good assemblage King Seba; you have the Generals, the other Princes, the assistants and even your daughter. I really felt quite distressed at not receiving an invitation" Samantha said.**

"**You were not wanted here" Jessie said.**

"**Oh dear what an awkward situation I had hoped that it was merely due to some oversight" Samantha said.**

"**You are not offended are you your Excellency?" Tabitha asked.**

"**Why no your majesty and to show that I bear no ill will I too shall bestow a gift upon the child. Listen well all of you. Your daughter will indeed grow with beauty and battle field skills but before the sun rises on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on Des Tiny's spinning wheel and she will die" Samantha laughed evilly. **

"**Oh no" the king and queen said together then Samantha went off stage and Hattie stepped forward.**

"**Do not despair your majesties as Hattie still has her gift to give" Jessie said.**

"**Then she can undo Des Tiny's terrible curse?" Seba said.**

"**Oh no Sire, his powers are far too strong but we can help" Jessie said.**

"**But…" Hattie said.**

"**Just do your best dear" Julia said.**

"**If through this evil Des Tiny curse a finger should you prick. A ray of moonlight there may be in this. You will not die but just sleep this prophecy you still keep and from this slumber you shall wake when pure blood's bite the spell shall break" Hattie finished.**

**Then the narrator Prince Mika continued with his next part and then it was my part on stage. **

"**But King Seba was still fearful of his daughter's life so he ordered that every spinning wheel on that very night be burned so it was done" **

"**A bonfire will not stop Drucilla" Hattie said**

"**What will stop her?" Jessie asked.**

"**Well perhaps if we reasoned with her" Julia said.**

"**Reason with Drucilla?" Hattie said.**

"**Well she can't be all bad" Julia said.**

"**Oh yes she can and I'd like to turn her into a fat old toad" Jessie said.**

"**Now dear that isn't a very nice thing to say and besides you know our magic doesn't work that way. It can only do good to bring joy and happiness" Hattie said.**

"**Well that would make me happy" Jessie said.**

"**I know what to do. I'll turn her into a bat" Hattie said.**

"**Do you want to turn Drucilla into a bat?" Julia asked.**

"**No dear I'll turn the princess into a bat" Hattie said.**

"**Oh she'd make a lovely bat and she can't prick her finger that way. She'll be perfectly safe" Jessie said.**

"**Yes she will be until Drucilla sends a frost" Julia said.**

"**Oh dear and Drucilla will expect something like that. What won't she expect? She knows everything" Jessie said.**

"**Oh but she doesn't dear, Drucilla knows nothing about blood or being a vampiress or the joy of helping the clan. You know I don't think that she is very happy" Julia said.**

"**We'll raise the baby as our own without magic" Jessie decided.**

"**That is a good idea but the king and queen will object" Julia said.**

"**Well when we explain that it is the only way to do it" Jessie said.**

"**You mean that we have to live like humans for sixteen years with no wings and no magic, we know nothing about cooking or washing, we'll all have to pitch in" Julia said.**

"**That is why Drucilla will never suspect us. Come along now we must tell their majesties at once" Hattie said.**

"**So it was with heavy hearts the king and queen watched their most precious possession; their only child disappear into the night" Prince Mika said.**

"**Right well done everybody that is Act One read through. You all did well. Where it says about the effects we will do that in the actual rehearsals and not when we are just reading through the script. Act Two from the top Prince Mika please continue your narration" I said.**

"**Many sad and lonely years went by for King Seba and his queen but as the time for the princess's sixteenth birthday drew near the entire mountain started to rejoice because as long as Drucilla's home the vampaneze lair was still full of her wrath and frustration the evil prophecy had not yet been fulfilled. Meanwhile in an abandoned flat deep in the woods the three good fairies had raised the vampiress as their own and they had named her Rose" Prince Mika finished.**

**At this point it was my turn to walk on stage and do my part. **

"**Well and what are you three fairies up to?" I asked.**

"**Um we want you to pick some berries" Jessie said.**

"**I picked berries yesterday" I said.**

"**We need more berries Rose. Don't hurry back and don't go too far, don't talk to strangers either" Jessie said as I went off stage and back on again for the next scene where I was in the woods. **

**I walked around the stage miming picking berries and I started to sing my big solo song.**

"**I wonder if every General has a blessed mate, to sing to, to duel with, a vampiric little melody. I wonder why my heart keeps singing to someone. You know I am not supposed to talk to strangers but every night in my dreams I see this tall, striking vampire. Who is he I wonder?" I said.**

**Then Larten came on to the stage as this was his part. He listened to me sing and then I bumped into him and turned around to see him.**

"**Oh I am sorry. Please forgive me I did not see you there" I said as I had bumped into him.**

"**I am not meant to talk to strangers" I said.**

"**But I am not a stranger. We have met before as you just said so yourself. I know you, I duelled with you once upon the Bars, I know you the staff in your hand is so familiar a staff and I know that dreams are seldom more than these but if I know you I know what you would do, you would duel me at once, the way you did once upon the Bars" Larten finished. This was a slow operatic tune. **

**Then we walked around the stage knocking our staves together and it was almost a dance. Then I came in with my part of the song which we sung together.**

"**I know you, I duelled with you once upon the Bars, I know you the staff in your hands is so familiar a staff and I know that dreams are seldom more than these but if I know you, I would know what you would do, you would duel me at once, the way you did once upon the Bars" **

**That was the end of the second scene and then we took a break as singing opera is hard even for vampires! I was pleased with the production so far but it was hard to act without any set or stage props. We mimed everything except the singing. All of the singing was live and it really brought the show to life. **

**After our break we focused upon the last act and the dramatic conclusion to our play. The scene where I effectively fell into a deep sleep and only Larten could wake me up. This was also Samantha's big scene too.**

"**Everybody, do not worry about getting all your lines right straight away. If you mess it up improvise" I said.**

"**Behold King Seba's castle and in yonder in the top most tower dreaming of her first feed lays the Princess Aurora but see the gracious whim of destiny, it is the self-same vampiress that won the heart of our noble vampire General but yesterday. She is most vampiric fair with the black of night in her hair and lips that shame the reddest blood. In enchanted sleep she finds Larten. **

**The years roll by but a hundred years to a vampire are but a night and now the guards of the Dome part and Larten is free to go on his way and wake his mate with pure blood's first bite and prove that pure blood conquers all" Samantha said with a cruel cackle. Then Samantha said:**

"**Come let us leave our noble Prince with these happy thoughts. It has been a most gratifying night. For the first time in sixteen years I shall sleep well"**

**Then Samantha left and the three fairies came on to free Larten from the dungeon that we had built as part of the set. **

**Then there came the final scene where Larten had to battle his way through the woods and past Des Tiny's demons in order to reach the Prince's Dome in order to rescue me which was the end of the performance and the end of our first rehearsal. In my opinion the first rehearsal went quite well but we needed to have character names as our own names were no good for the performance.**

**Obviously we had kept the name of Aurora but we needed more vampiric alternatives so I came up with King Seba instead of King Stefan, the Queen as just the Queen, Prince Vladimir instead of Prince Philip, the three fairies would be Arra, Raven and Evanna instead of Jessie, Julia and Hattie, the evil fairy would become Drucilla instead of Maleficent. **

**After that we were ready to go and I altered the script with the new names in it. I wrote the songs myself to the tune of the original ones but they were vampirised and our comedy was brilliant, the cast was in stitches when we ran the sketches through to practice them. There was one sketch where the three fairies were trying to make a cake and they iced it before it was baked and it collapsed, another sketch is where they were fighting over the colour of the dress and they all ended up covered in glitter and other coloured paints as they threw it all over each other whilst trying to decide between red and black material to make the dress out of. **

**We made it vampiric by changing the original colours of blue and pink to black and red and we tried to create special effects but it did not work so we had to make three dresses one black, one red and the other a mix of both colours. We had tried to do a bit of lighting magic with a few blackouts so that the dresses could be changed over as we could not obviously do magic for real. **

**However as we were so fast we were able to click our fingers, rush backstage, put the new dress on and go back on stage before it took too long. It looked like a quick change routine. **

"**Being a vampiress and playing a fairy has its advantages" Jessie said as she practised darting on and off stage with only a finger click to get changed and appear on stage again ready for the next scene. It was pretty hard but in the end Jessie and Hattie nailed it and it looked great. **

**Larten had dabbled with illusions in his youth so he was able to help out with the speed tricks and he trained all three of the vampiresses who were playing fairies how to do their speed change for the dress comedy scene. **

"**Right everybody let us have another full run through and then tomorrow we will start working upon our costumes. Everyone who is singing you must practice as you cannot keep messing up your lyrics" I said sternly as we all got into our places ready for a full run through of our creation. **

"**Prince Mika from the top when you are ready please" I said.**

"**Alright let's do this thing" the crew said and we all started our third rehearsal of the day. **

"**Samantha when you come on you will need to be in the middle where that blue cross is or the spotlight will not be on you" I instructed. **

"**Alright I will try it again" Samantha said. **

"**Right then let's go from Samantha's opening speech when she curses the baby" I said.**

"**Oh no its Drucilla the fairy" Jessie said.**

"**I really felt quite distressed at not receiving an invitation" Samantha replied.**

"**Well you were not wanted" Hattie said.**

"**Not wanted? Oh dear what an awkward situation, I had hoped that it was merely due to some oversight" Samantha said.**

"**You are not offended your Excellency?" Tabitha asked.**

"**Why no your majesty and to show that I bear no ill will I too shall bestow a gift upon the child. Listen well all of you. Your daughter will indeed grow with beauty and battle field skills but before the sun rises on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on Des Tiny's spinning wheel and she will die" **

**Samantha laughed evilly as the script said and then she vanished in a flash of green light. **

**This opening scene was looking good and the effects made the acting look even better. The scene continued with Jessie saying her part.**

"**Do not despair your majesties as Arra still has her gift to give" Jessie said.**

"**Then she can undo this terrible curse?" Seba said.**

"**Oh no Sire, Drucilla's powers are far too great but we can help" Jessie said.**

"**But…" Hattie said.**

"**Just do your best dear" Julia said.**

"**Sweet vampiress if through this evil vampaneze curse a finger should you prick. A ray of moonlight there still may be in this. The gift I give to thee, not in death but just in sleep this evil prophecy you keep and from this slumber you shall wake when pure blood's bite the spell shall break" Hattie finished. **

"**Well done everybody that was great you are really getting into your roles now. I loved your part Hattie, you really do Evanna justice and Samantha you make a great evil fairy" I said before we moved onto the next scene.**

**We continued rehearsing the whole play for a week and then we moved onto the dress rehearsals as all of our costumes were ready by this point and we were dying to try them out. I had three costumes, the dress, my peasant's outfit and my wedding gown as we had decided to add in a final wedding scene at the end with everybody singing. **

"**Right lets practice the Des Tiny's lair scene as we never get that bit right" Jessie said to Hattie and Julia. **

"**Right everybody who is in the dungeon scene on stage and everyone who is not sit and watch us" Jessie said. **

"**I agree, we really need to get that dungeon scene nailed. It is OK but it is not quite good enough compared to the rest of the show" I replied as I sat down to watch Samantha, Larten, Jessie, Julia and Hattie perform the dungeon scene. **

"**Away with him but gently my pets as I have plans for our royal guest" Samantha said in her most commanding voice.**

"**Drucilla has Prince Vladimir at the vampaneze lair" Jessie said as she picked up his hat off of the floor.**

"**But we can't go there" Julia said.**

"**We can and we must" Hattie said and they vanished.**

"**That was brilliant, right let's see this dungeon scene again" I said.**

"**Oh come now Prince Vladimir why are you so melancholy? A wondrous future lies before you, you are the destined hero of a charming vampire-tale come true. Behold King Seba's castle and yonder inside the top tower dreaming of her first feed the Princess Aurora but see the gracious whim of destiny for it is the self-same vampiress who won the heart of our noble vampire but yesterday. She is indeed most vampiric fair with the black of night in her hair and lips that shame the reddest blood. In enchanted sleep she finds Larten, the years roll by but one hundred years to a vampire's heart are but a night and now the gates of the dungeon part and our Prince is free to go on his way. Off he flits at top speed to wake his mate with pure blood's first bite and prove that pure blood conquers all. Come now let us leave our noble prince with these happy thoughts. It has been a most gratifying night" Samantha finished and then she left the dungeon.**

"**Well done Samantha, right let's go onto the last bit" I said.**

**Then Hattie, Julia and Jessie came in to free Larten and they helped him get to the castle for the final fight and the last scenes of the performance.**

"**Shh there is no time to explain" Jessie said as she opened Larten's shackles with a single click of her fingers. **

"**Wait Prince Vladimir. The road to the castle may be barred by many more dangers which you alone will have to face so take this mighty sword and this enchanted shield, these weapons alone will triumph over evil, now come we must hurry" Hattie said as they escaped out of the dungeon set and out into the castle path set. **

"**Forest of thorns shall be this tall, thunder through the skies like a plant of doom. Now grow with a purpose and serve thee well, around King Seba's castle I cast thy spell" Samantha said.**

**We had built a huge wall of thorns and thick trees that Larten had to cut a path through and we had also built a raised platform where the final fight would take place. **

"**Now shall you deal with me your highness and all the powers of hell" Samantha said when Larten had cut through the thorn bushes with help from the fairies. **

**Samantha appeared to transform into a dragon and she flew high up to the platform. In reality it was a mechanical dragon that we had built and Samantha was on a rope that lifted her up into the air but the rope had been cleverly hidden. **

"**Up this way" Jessie said and Larten vaulted the high platform that was meant to be a cliff face. Larten then had to fight this mechanical dragon which he did and finally he descended the cliff top and then he reached the castle. **

**This was my final few scenes so I went up onto the stage and I entered the tower set where I was supposed to be asleep in my bed. Larten approached me and he gave me my "first bite", humans traditionally say true love's first kiss but we changed it to pure blood's first bite as it sounds much more vampiric.**

**Basically it means a love bite that is given by someone who has pure blood in other words a Prince or a person's blessed mate. **

**After that we went into the finally where we basically got married and then everybody sung the last songs of the show which were I'll Stand By You and the reprise of Once Upon the Bars and that was our show completed or rather it was our first full rehearsal of our show finished. **

**It went well and it looked good because we had made the sets, we had the props, the lighting was great, we were having the costumes made, the sound effects were pretty cool and we had organised our hair and make-up technicians. **

**This was going to be a brilliant show and now all I had to do was make sure that everybody in the clan was invited to watch our show and that the backstage crew knew their jobs and their queues for lighting and music. **

"**Right everybody we need to work on the last two songs as the Once upon the Bars reprise is not great and as for I'll Stand by You it is not too good either. Both of these songs need work so can I have the choir on stage, the chorus over there and the others up here too please?" I asked.**

"**Right everybody we are going to go from the part where Aurora and Prince Vladimir walk down the stairs" I said as I got into position with Larten next to me. **

"**Action ladies and gentlemen" I said and we practised the last scene.**

"**Forgive me Seba, the wine made me sleepy" Vanez said. **

"**Yes you said that a moment ago" Seba said.**

"**Well to come right to the point my son Vladimir says he's going to marry…"**

"**Look its Aurora, she is here" Seba said.**

"**And Vladimir, what does this mean boy? I don't understand" Vanez said.**

"**I know you I duelled with you once upon the Bars, I know you the staff in your hands is so familiar to me and I know it is true that dreams are seldom more than this, but if I know you, I know what you would do, you would duel me at once, the way you did once upon the Bars, yes you would duel me at once, the way you did once upon the Bars" Larten and I sung together whilst we danced the waltz. I of course was in my wedding gown for this scene and it flowed with me when I was dancing.**

"**What is it dear?" Jessie asked.**

"**Oh I just love a happy ending" Hattie replied.**

"**Yes I do too" Jessie said.**

"**Look at that red dress, make it black" Julia said and I changed into my alternate gown.**

"**Make it red" Hattie said, I changed back into my red dress again and this was the end of the story. **

"**Well done everybody that was much better. Right we need to sort out the scene where I prick my finger and fall asleep" I said.**

"**Alright let's run through it quickly. We'll take it from the scene where we fairies leave you alone to compose yourself" Jessie said.**

"**Alright that is a good idea, do not worry about the set changes just get the acting right as the set for this scene is not finished yet anyway" I replied.**

"**Now dear if you just sit here this one last gift dear child for thee, the symbol of thy royalty. A crown to wear in vampiric grace and beauty" Jessie said.**

"**Come let her have a few moments alone" Hattie replied.**

"**I don't see why she has to marry any old Prince" Julia said.**

"**Now that's not for us to decide dear. Listen…" Jessie said.**

"**Drucilla, oh why did we leave her alone?" Hattie said.**

"**Where are you Rose?" Jessie asked.**

"**Here" Julia said and the three fairies raced up the stairs after me, the staircase had been blocked by a wall but Julia had waved her wand and the wall vanished, in reality it had been slid out of view on wheels by two stage hands. **

"**Rose, don't touch anything" Jessie shouted.**

"**Touch the spindle, touch it I say" Samantha said.**

**Then the three fairies arrived in the same room as Samantha.**

"**You poor simple fools thinking that you could defeat me the mistress of all evil. Well here's your precious vampiress" Samantha said.**

"**Oh Rose I will never forgive myself" Hattie said.**

"**Right that is a wrap everybody, well done that was so much better. I could really feel your emotion that time" I said. **

"**Good that is how it is meant to be performed. I am really getting into this fairy roll now. It is fun" Hattie said. **

"**I thought that it would be, we have done nearly every scene now except for the scene where Prince Vladimir tells his father that he wants to marry the peasant in the woods and not Princess Aurora not knowing that they are the same person" I explained.**

"**Alright I had better get into my position then" Larten said.**

"**Yes and Vanez that means you too. You can start whenever you are both ready" I replied as I sat down.**

"**Vladimir wait hold it Vladimir. Hurry and change into something suitable for you cannot meet your future bride looking like that" Vanez said.**

"**But I have met her father" Larten replied.**

"**We must tell Seba" Vanez said.**

"**I did not say that it was Aurora" Larten replied.**

"**You did you said…" Vanez said.**

"**I said I met the vampiress I am going to marry; I do not know who she was a peasant vampiress I think" Larten said.**

"**A peasant vampiress you're going to marry a peasant vampiress? Why Vladimir you're joking. You can't do this to me. You can't give up the throne and the clan for some nobody, I won't have it you're a prince and your going to marry a princess" Vanez said.**

"**Now father you are living in the past this is the twenty first century. Nowadays…" Larten said.**

"**Nowadays I am still the King and I command you to come to your senses" Vanez ordered.**

"**I will marry the vampiress that I love" Larten said.**

"**Exactly" Vanez replied.**

"**Goodbye father" Larten said.**

"**Goodbye Vladimir, marry the vampiress you love. Oh no, Vladimir come back here Vladimir" Vanez finished and that was the end of that scene. **

"**That was brilliant, it must be strange calling Vanez your father though" I said.**

"**It is fine as we are both good actors" Larten replied.**

"**The whole play has been acted very well so far. The beginning parade will be a problem as we need men on horses and lots of flags" I said.**

"**Maybe you could stage the start of the play outside or just cut that bit out and start with the narration and continue it" Larten suggested.**

"**Outside would not work so I will shorten the parade piece and have a few Generals marching whilst holding banners. That would work then" I said. **

"**Yes that would work as long as they can all sing the opening song together. They may need some help" Larten said.**

"**Alright well if you want to add some pre-recorded backing vocals onto the sound desk to be played over the top of the singers that would be OK as we need both men and women singing and the Generals are not all that good at singing but we are" I said.**

"**Yes alright if that makes it sound better but we must not do too much as the audience will only hear us and not them if we sing to much" Larten said.**

"**That is a good point. Right everybody I want you all in a line. We are going to sing every song together, sing your parts and sing as best as you can" I said.**

"**Joy to the Vampires a Princess is born bringing all the health and loyalty into the clan. Hail to the Princess Aurora, hail to the King, hail to the Queen, hail to the Princess Aurora, hail Aurora, hail Aurora, health to the Princess, wealth to the Princess, long live the Princess Aurora hail to the King, hail to the Queen, hail to the Princess Aurora" We all sung and that was the beginning song fixed. **

**I was happy with how the production was going but it was a bit hard to sort out all of the lighting and pyrotechnics as we needed a lot of fireworks and an indoor firework display was not an option. We decided to do it at the end of the opening night outside and that way it would work but fireworks are very expensive so we'd have to either save up or not have very many. **

**Meanwhile I was trying to sort out our costumes as we had a lot of stuff to organise and we needed decent costumes to make our play look authentic. **

**I had to make costumes for most of the cast as not many people could sew but it was going to take ages even with my extra speed so I tried to rope in as many people as possible to help me put these costumes together. **

**I had to make them from scratch using lots of material and that was something that we did not have so I took the carriage, I went into the city as I had to buy a lot of material from the outfitters, I needed reams of velvet for the coats and trousers, I needed satin for the linings, I needed lace for the collars and cuffs and I needed lots of it. I also had to try and get five crowns of varying sizes for the final scenes in the play and crowns are neither easy to make or cheap to buy.**


	28. The Outfitters

**Chapter 28 the Outfitters**

**I arrived at the outfitters and I had a long list of materials that I had to buy. I had to get material, buttons, thread, zips, cloak pins, cuff links and lots of sewing equipment as my sewing box had run dry of its limited supplies. **

**I was sure that the outfitters would not be open so I went around the back and I knocked on the guy's door.**

"**What do you want?" The guy asked me.**

"**I want to buy some materials and some sewing equipment" I said.**

"**We're closed. Come back in the daylight" The guy said.**

"**I have a sun allergy, I have to come at night time" I replied.**

"**You mean that you are one of them mountain folk, I get a few people down here at night time but they only ever want cloaks fixed and armour repaired" The guy said.**

"**I want to buy reams of velvet, satin, lace, buttons, thread, zips, cuff links and a few other things" I replied.**

"**Well I have all of those things but they are not cheap" The guy said.**

"**I have roughly three thousand Romanian Lei on me and I have more where that came from" I said.**

"**Well we are talking. Did you win the lottery?" The guy asked me.**

"**No I just work and I have a rich husband, I am very wealthy" I said.**

"**I can certainly provide you with everything that you need but it will not be cheap as a ream of velvet is one thousand Lei. What do you need it for?" The guy asked me.**

"**I am making costumes for this play that we are in, I have to make a fair few costumes you understand and they have to be regal" I explained.**

"**Well why didn't you say so, I can make costumes and clothing easily. I'll make a deal with you, if I make every costume and have them done in time for your show may I be permitted to watch the show and join you afterwards?" The guy asked me.**

"**I will have to ask the Princes but it sounds like a fair deal and it will save me lots of time too" I replied. **

"**Have you got designs drawn up for the costumes?" The guy asked me.**

"**Yes I have rough ideas of what I want. I need clothing for two kings, a queen, a princess, three fairies, an evil fairy, guards, courtiers and a choir" I said.**

"**What a lot of work but my team will take care of it. I ask for six thousand Lei in addition to the deal. Is that fair?" The guy asked me.**

"**Yes and I will get back to you on the other thing. Who are you?" I asked.**

"**My name is Dimitri and I am Russian but I love Romania so that is why I live here in Bucharest. Luckily most of us speak English as I do not speak any Romanian and communication has been a problem in the past but not any longer" Dimitri said to me. **

"**I appreciate all of your help. I will be back in a couple of days to see your progress but now I must be away as the sun has nearly risen and it will be upon me if I am not careful" I replied.**

"**Very well I shall see you in a couple of days then and thank you for your order" Dimitri said.**

**I left the shop and I returned to my carriage which I was driving. I knew that it was quicker to go by carriage than walking and it was fun driving a carriage anyway. **

"**Trot on" I said to my horse and with a slight shake of the reins we were off back to the mountain. **

"**Yah faster" I said and my horse picked up the pace slightly so I used the whip and then he broke into a canter which was fine because it kept him going at a reasonable speed. I had to trot over some of the steep bits but it was a fun ride and I loved having a carriage. I was lucky that Larten knew how to make and drive carriages. **

**I arrived back at the mountain with the necessary materials and equipment to refill my sewing box.**

"**So let's see our costumes then Sarah" Vanez said when I got back to the halls. **

"**Ha that is funny. You are blind so how can you see the costumes? Anyway I do not have them as they are being made by a tailor in the village. I have to go back and check them in a couple of nights" I replied.**

"**I may be blind but I can still feel the material" Vanez replied.**

"**That is true, I did not think of that" I replied.**

"**There you are Sarah I have been waiting for you for ages" Larten said when he bumped into me in the halls.**

"**Sorry I had a lot of stuff to organise and our costumes are in hand so there is no need to worry" I replied.**

"**That is not why I was worried you had better come and see our quarters" Larten said and he looked worried which was something that I never saw.**

"**Alright I will come now. It is not bad is it?" I asked.**

"**It is a total disrespect and it has made me very angry" Larten said.**

"**We raced off to our quarters and they were in total disarray. Someone had broken into our quarters. The lock had been smashed and our bed had obviously been used. Our stuff was everywhere and on the floor smashed into pieces was the urn that contained Arra's remaining ashes.**

"**What the hell has happened here?" I said as I looked around at the destruction.**

"**We have been robbed and disrespected. It smells of sex in here and it is not us as we are always very careful and we never make this much mess, no this was done by two newbies or somebody who holds a grudge" Larten replied.**

"**Well we have to go to the Princes and Seba as he will sort us out some temporary accommodation whilst the guilty parties clean up this mess and as for Arra's urn we will have to save as much of her as we can and get a new urn but there was not much left to begin with" I responded still shocked by what I saw around me.**

**I rushed off to get Seba and I called the Princes out as this was a matter of urgency.**

"**What in the name of the Gods has happened in here Larten?" Seba asked when he arrived.**

"**We have been robbed and our quarters have been destroyed. My jewellery is gone and so too are some of Larten's weapons. What the hell are we going to do?" I asked angrily.**

"**I will sort out some temporary accommodation and I will get this mess cleaned up as for your jewels and weapons you will have to let the Princes deal with that as I have no power to do so" Seba replied.**

"**Alright well we had better go and salvage what we can from this hell hole that was our quarters" Larten replied. **

"**I agree but it does not look like we have much to salvage" I said.**

"**There will be a few things that are not damaged or broken but we will have to replace the bed as it is broken and it has been soiled. As for the clothes they can be washed and ironed and they will be OK and my weapons can be replaced but your jewellery is another matter as I have not got the funds to replace it as we have spent so much on the theatre and on our anniversary party that I have very few coins left and nowhere near enough to buy you new jewels" Larten explained. **

"**That is OK as I am sure that I will get them back and if you have no money then you can have some of mine because I have saved up a small fortune recently to pay for any emergencies that may occur" I replied.**

"**I have saved some of your finer clothes but the rough stuff is gone and your weapons are all here but they are quite blunt. My stuff has been taken and rifled through I am missing lots of my clothing and my armour has gone, whoever broke in here obviously had a shopping list of what to take. At least they did not take any of my really personal items" Larten said. **

"**Yes let us be thankful for small mercies but it is going to be quite a while before we get our quarters back into order" I said.**

"**I agree and I only hope that Seba has some spare quarters for us to share until we can move back into these ones" Larten responded.**

"**Well I do have some spare quarters for you but we have to attend to a matter of business first before you can move in" Seba replied.**

"**I will follow you to the Prince's Dome then you can explain" Larten said to Seba.**

"**Is it not obvious to you two what I am getting at?" Seba asked with a smirk.**

"**No it is not obvious. Why do we need to do business in the Prince's Dome before we can see our temporary quarters?" I asked.**

"**Because your temporary quarters are in the Prince's Dome but as only Princes and their mates can reside there we have to make you a Prince first Larten and you know what that means" Seba explained to us both.**

"**Of course we do but it takes years and I am not ready yet and Sarah has no idea on how it will affect her life. Is there another way?" Larten asked.**

"**Not unless you want to camp outside or sleep in the halls" Seba explained.**

"**I have been waiting for this for a long time now and it is about time that I was elevated and there is a throne with my name upon it waiting for me" I replied.**

"**Sarah it is not that simple but if it makes you happy then I have no objections to it" Larten responded as we entered the Prince's Dome.**


	29. The Investiture

**Chapter 29 the Investiture**

**We sat down on one of the many benches in the Prince's Dome and we saw all of the available Generals sat around us. We waited for the Princes to emerge from their chambers and when they did there was quite a lot of noise and talking until Prince Mika held up his hand and said;**

"**Silence my people we must have order here" and at his words the whole hall fell silent until I sneezed and I was quite embarrassed but it could not be helped.**

"**Bless you Sarah by the Gods" Prince Mika said.**

"**Thank you Sire" I replied.**

"**Anyway let us now get down to business and we have some exciting news for all of you gathered here. We have decided to reward two of our most loyal Clan members by making one of them a Prince and granting his blessed mate her rightful throne as a Prince's mate. Do we have any objections?" Prince Mika asked and the whole hall was silent.**

"**Well if that is the case then we can proceed with the investiture. I now call the vampire Larten Crepsley and his blessed mate up onto our platform to receive their investiture" Prince Mika announced to the gathered Generals.**

"**I am scared Larten. I do not know how to proceed" I whispered.**

"**Neither do I as I have not been present any previous investitures but I am sure that it cannot be as bad as going to war or taking the Trials of Death and you survived that" Larten said. **

"**I only just pulled through the Trials of Death though and I would have died if not for you and your tireless efforts and your intense training" I replied as I reached the platform and I stepped up onto it so that I was face to face with Prince Mika, Prince Darren, Julia and Prince Vancha as Prince Arrow was absent from the mountain. **

"**My people tonight we are investing this vampire as a Prince and as such I must ask you Larten of the Clan are you free to take this oath? Do you swear to always be a loyal and honourable Prince and do you swear to put the welfare of the Clan before your own desires?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Yes I do so swear this oath" Larten replied solemnly with his head bowed.**

"**Now we invite you to touch the Stone of Blood and add your blood to ours as we add ours to you" Prince Mika said.**

**I watched as Larten received the Prince's blood in a special blooding where he had one hand on the Stone of Blood and one hand joined to Prince Mika's. **

"**Bring out the Prince's robe" Prince Vancha called.**

**The Prince's regal blue robe was draped around Larten who adjusted it and stood up looking quite solemn still but he could not help but look honoured as well. **

"**Clan members I now present to you your newest Prince, Prince Larten of the Clan but we are not done here as we have one more investiture. Sarah as Larten's blessed mate you are now entitled to be invested as well so would you please step forward and swear the oath that Larten has just sworn?" Prince Mika asked.**

**I stepped forward nervously and I too bowed my head and prepared myself to take the oath.**

"**Sarah, are you free to take this oath? Do you swear to always be a loyal and honourable Princess and do you swear to put the welfare of the Clan before your own desires?" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**Yes I too swear to this oath" I replied.**

"**Now we invite you to touch the Stone of Blood and add your blood to ours as we add ours to you" Prince Mika said.**

**I touched the Stone of Blood and I felt my blood being drained out of me whilst Prince Mika's blood flowed into me.**

"**Bring out the second Prince's robe" Prince Vancha called out.**

**The robe was draped around me and it was a little bit big as they had not had a Princess before and this robe was meant for a man. **

"**Clan members I now present to you our first Princess, Princess Sarah of the Clan hail to the new Prince and Princess bring out the thrones" Prince Mika announced. **

**At this point eight Generals came in and they were carrying two thrones that looked quite large and heavy but I secretly could not wait to park my bottom on one of them and look down upon the Clan members who were cheering and celebrating our investiture. **

"**I am so proud Larten. I feel like going down there and celebrating too" I said.**

"**Just enjoy our triumph for a while longer and then we will join in with the celebrations my dear" Larten said and he held me up above his head and spun me around in celebration. **

"**We still have to get to the bottom of who destroyed our quarters Larten" I reminded him.**

"**That will come later but right now I just want to enjoy this moment as the whole Clan will look to us now for advice and guidance and soon we will have lots of business to attend to" Larten replied.**

"**Oh alright let us celebrate now and leave the business until later" I said as I stood waving and smiling to the Clan members who were downing barrels of ale and shouting "Hail" at the top of their lungs. **

**I sat on my throne, I had never been so happy and I wished that my family could have seen me now and what had become of me. **

**I shared a toast with the other Princes and Julia then we sat down to eat our feast that had been prepared for us. I yanked a leg of venison off of the spit and I sat there munching on it, then I went back for some roasted pork and finally I washed it all down with a few glasses of champagne that I shared out with my fellow Princes. **

"**I am going to raise a toast to the Vampire Clan and its Princes. May they all rule in peace and prosperity" I said as I downed what must have been my ninth glass of champagne. **

"**Cheers Sarah and allow me to raise a toast to you my dear. Let us hear it for our first Vampire Princess" Larten replied.**

"**Cheers darling" I said and we downed the rest of the champagne between us out of the same goblet. **

**By this point I was in high spirits and I was ready to party so I grabbed a few more barrels of ale and cracked them open, I downed one before I shared one with the rest of the Princes, we all drunk some before it leaked all over the floor. **

"**It is a shame that vampires do not show up on film as this would be a great photograph opportunity as we are all here in high spirits and we would look great in a photograph together" I said.**

"**Well we can have a portrait painted of us all having a good time and we can hang it up there. We could call it "Night of the Double Investiture"" Prince Vancha suggested. **

"**Yes that would be great Sire" I replied.**

"**Hey you are one of us now so you no longer need to call me Sire it is Vancha, Mikie, Arrow and Larten to you and emphases on the Mikie" Vancha laughed.**

"**Alright, is that OK with you guys?" I asked. **

"**Yes but enough of the Mikie as that is a piss take and I hate it" Prince Mika said.**

"**Whatever you say Prince Mikie" I laughed.**

"**Right that is it I challenge you to a duel for your impudence" Prince Mika said.**

"**Ha, you can barely stand up Mikie freaky let alone duel me" I laughed out loud.**

"**Good one Sarah it is traditional to take the piss out of us if you have just been invested" Prince Vancha remarked.**

"**Vancha, you are such a bull shit spreader you know that isn't true and I don't want to be called Mikie or Mikie freaky ever again is that clear?" Prince Mika growled at me and Prince Vancha but we just laughed it off and then we laughed even more when Prince Mika could not even stand up as he was too drunk. He fell asleep on his throne whilst we continued to party.**

"**Mikie is such a lightweight, he clearly does not handle his alcohol well and when he fell over earlier I was in stitches" I said.**

"**I know you were dear I was watching the whole charade. I only drink in moderation and it has proven to be a wise strategy" Larten said as he staggered into the Prince's Quarters.**

"**Oh yes I can see that you clearly drink in moderation since you are staggering all over the place dear" I sniggered. **

"**I had two barrels of strong ale and five glasses of champagne which I shared with you I hasten to add" Larten snapped back as he lay down in our new coffin. **

"**Yes well it does not matter and if it is OK with you I am going to have a shower and then I am going to bed as I am really tired" I replied as I hopped into the adjoining shower room and plunged myself into the icy cold water-even Vampire Princesses have to have cold showers whilst in the mountain! **

"**Brrr it is freezing in here. It is colder than the other shower room" I called out but there was no reply as Larten was asleep when I snuggled in beside him wearing my new Princess's pyjamas that were made out of fur and silk. It was better than my regular night dress anyway. **

"**I think that I am going to enjoy my new life as a Princess" I said to Prince Darren when he came in to go to his own bed chamber.**

"**Yes I like it too and Julia revels in it but she does not have your privileges" Prince Darren replied.**

"**And it is just as well as otherwise the Prince's Dome would be overrun by her stuff and her pets. How many rats does Julia have?" I asked.**

"**Enough for a small army as she has thirty or more" Prince Darren replied.**

"**Just like when I was in the sewers with those scum" I replied.**

"**Yeah I had forgotten about that. Good Day Sarah I will see you at sunset for your duties" Prince Darren said as he left.**

"**Good Day Darren I will see you tomorrow" I replied as I lay down and went to sleep in my new extra-large, super comfortable coffin. **

**I slept soundly that night and for the first time in a long time I was warm and I was contented to sleep in a coffin rather than a bed. **

**I woke up at around nine pm and I was tucked up under Larten's cloak but Larten was not next to me. **

**I went and fixed my breakfast and then as I sat upon my throne eating it Larten came into the Prince's Dome and took his place next to me.**

"**Where were you when I woke up?" I asked.**

"**Sorry dear I went outside to get some air as it is a little stuffy in that chamber but I am OK and now I am going to be in here with you whilst we attend to our business" Larten replied as we finished our rabbit stew that we had chosen to eat for breakfast as the Princes always got served first and we could have whatever we wanted to eat. **

**I finished my bowl of stew and it was really nice, it was way better in taste than what I normally had to eat and it was a great way to start my first night as a Vampire Princess. **

"**What is on the agenda tonight?" I asked.**

"**We have all sorts of discussions to hold like the leaking roof and what we can do about it, our job is quite boring really but we get privileges like our thrones and our great food" Prince Darren replied whilst he chewed on a leg of lamb. **

"**I want to raise the issue of my break in and who is responsible for destroying my quarters" I replied.**

"**Well you are a Princess now so you can do that and every General will have to do exactly as you tell them and you get loads of free time also you get what is called free reign which means that you can do pretty much anything you want whenever you want to and no-one can stop you or tell you no" Prince Darren said.**

"**So I can leave the mountain and go to the Cirque Du Freak and then come back whenever I want to?" I asked excitedly.**

"**Yes in theory as long as you are not needed here as you have to put the Clan's welfare before your own happiness" Prince Darren reminded me. **

"**I know Darren I know that all too well" I replied as I called for some warm milk which was fun to do.**

"**Oi, you in the corner" I said and I signalled to a General who was looking bored.**

"**Yes my lady?" The General asked.**

"**Fetch me some blood and make sure it is warm and fresh then get me some clean clothes" I ordered.**

"**As you wish my lady" The General said and he disappeared.**

"**That was handled well Sarah" Prince Darren said.**

"**He looked bored so I gave him a job" I replied.**

**At that moment Larten (Or should I say Prince Larten?) returned from his errand and he took his place on his throne which was conveniently next to mine and then when Prince Vancha and Prince Mika turned up we begun to discuss our business.**

"**Right fellow Princes and Princess we have to fix this leaking roof as it is causing no end of problems the only problem is that the roof is one of those slanting ones and it is very high up. Has anybody got any ideas?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Well we have our high platform that we use for decorating and we have lots of spare rope. We could vault from the top of the platform, attach a rope to the ceiling and hold onto it whilst we put cement and stones over the leaking hole" I suggested.**

"**Yes that would work but what do we attach the rope to?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**One of those ring things that we use in the Halls of Sport to hold up the ropes in there" I replied.**

"**Perfect, I will get a team of Generals on it soon as possible before we run out of buckets" Prince Mika said. **

"**Is the leak that bad?" I asked.**

"**Yes it is quite a big hole" Prince Darren chipped in.**

"**Right the next item on our agenda is the break in that Larten and I suffered a few nights ago" I said.**

"**Yes I have heard about that and it disgusts me that even now certain clan members still disrespect you" Prince Mika said.**

"**Well what can we do about it? Most of our belongings were destroyed or stolen and our quarters are unusable now as the carpet was destroyed, the bed was soiled and the walls were covered in rude and obscene language" I explained.**

"**I did not know that it was that bad Sarah. As you are a Princess now you can order an investigation to be carried out and the guilty parties will be left to you to punish as you see fit" Prince Vancha explained.**

"**Well that is settled then and now do we have any other business?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Not that I am aware of, do you wish to discuss any other matters?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**No I think that we are finished here for now this meeting is adjourned" Prince Vancha said and we closed the session. **

"**What do we do now?" I asked.**

"**We chill out and enjoy ourselves as we have finished our business for now" Prince Larten said.**

"**I have an idea" I said and smiled at Larten who knew exactly what I was thinking. **

"**Excuse us please guys but we have business of our own to attend to" I said and I headed to the Prince's Chambers with Larten behind me.**

"**Shall we make our exit too?" Prince Vancha asked Prince Mika.**

"**Well that depends on whether you want to hear those two mating" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Not really and besides it is our turn to hunt I forgot to mention it earlier" Prince Vancha replied.**

"**So it is so that works out alright then and besides I am dying to get some moonlight on my skin as I have not been out for a while and I love a good chase" Prince Mika replied as they both left to go and find Prince Darren who had already left the Prince's Dome before they all left to go hunting and left us in peace. **

"**I am glad that is over for one night. This robe is so big on me it is stupid so I am going to have a smaller one made and out of better material as this is quite itchy on my skin" I said as I removed my oversized robe and lay in our coffin. **

"**I agree this robe is very itchy but it comes with the job I am afraid" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Well it gives us an excuse to be naked" I said and grinned.**

"**I did not think of it like that but now that you mention it you make a good point my love" Prince Larten replied.**

"**I thought that it was a good point" I replied as I got comfortable in preparation for mating. **

"**Are you ready for this?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**I am always ready for you to mate with me" I replied.**

"**Do you have any particular requests?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**Not really as I would not know what to ask for but as long as it is passionate and as long as it feels good I really do not mind what you do to me" I replied.**

"**Alright let me see what I can pull out of my skills bag to please you…" Prince Larten replied and then the wrestling started which was rough but it got my adrenaline pumping which would make my pleasure enhanced when it came time to actually mate. I did not mind wrestling and fighting for control but I preferred kissing, caressing and biting each other.**

**A few hours later when we had finished our mating I was absolutely exhausted and I had taken a battering but it was so much fun and I was now satisfied if a bit bruised and hungry for blood as that was the only thing that would get my energy back (that and lots of sleep). **

"**That was a pretty good experience and I hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did even though I am a bit bruised and I took a battering when you took control as you were a bit rough but I liked it and as my adrenaline was flowing through me along with the Prince's blood I could certainly handle you" I said as I drunk deeply from my golden goblet of fresh blood.**

"**I need some more blood" I said when I had finished drinking.**

"**Me too Sarah, I also need to feed" Prince Larten agreed and he disappeared only to return with a whole barrel full of fresh blood that was still warm.**

"**Let us share this then" I said.**

"**That is exactly what I was thinking, come here" Prince Larten said.**

"**Yes Sire" I laughed.**

"**I forgot that I can order you around" Prince Larten said.**

"**Actually I am your equal now so you cannot order me around but if you want to have some kind of master servant role play with me then that is OK" I said.**

"**Do you want to feed?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes, I am really thirsty" I replied.**

"**Then beg me for this blood if you want it" Larten said.**

"**I am not begging for anything, I will fetch my own" I replied.**

"**You will do what I tell you" Larten said and he looked fierce then I realised that this was the master servant thing.**

"**Please let me have some blood. I am gagging for a feed" I said meekly.**

"**On your knees, I want you begging on your knees" Prince Larten said so I dropped to my knees and begged.**

"**Please let me have some, I need it to get my strength back after our mating" I said on my hands and knees and then I held up my goblet to Larten who was now towering above me and he was looking down upon me like some dark demon. **

**Larten filled up my goblet and I drunk it down fast before he could take it off of me.**

"**Do you want some more?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes please" I said.**

"**Yes please what?" Prince Larten said angrily.**

"**Please Larten my love" I replied really quietly and meekly like a servant.**

"**Very well you may have some more" Prince Larten said.**

"**Thank you" I said and I downed my third goblet full of blood. **

**Then we shared the rest between us by kissing and drinking out of the same goblet until the barrel was empty. I liked my fingers and lips as I was covered in the red blood as the barrel had leaked a little bit.**

"**That is good blood. The best blood is always fresh" I remarked.**

"**I know it is and as we are now invested we have access to the personal storerooms where all of the best produce is stored for the Prince's pleasure" Prince Larten explained.**

"**As you know that the food that we normally get is good but this is even better and now I never have to worry about anything ever again" I responded.**

"**What do you want to do now? We still have ages before sunrise and we have no other meetings tonight" Prince Larten remarked.**

"**Well the Bars look a bit dusty as they have not been used for ages and I need some entertainment, also we have not played cards for ages either" I replied and looked towards the Halls of Sport. **

"**Fine if you wish to duel then go ahead and duel I need to duel too as I am a bit out of touch with my Clan members in the Halls of Sport" Prince Larten replied.**

**I headed to the Halls of Sport through the Prince's Passage that lead straight there so that I did not have to walk all the way around and up two flights of stairs. **

**I found one of my best staves upon the weapons rack and I gave it a twirl in my hand just to test it out before I hopped upon the Bars and waited for a challenge to come my way.**

**Not long after I entered the Halls of Sport Prince Larten entered and he challenged me.**

"**I challenge you to a duel upon these here Bars. Do you accept" Prince Larten called up to me.**

"**I accept your challenge" I called down and then the whole hall fell silent.**

"**Well it looks as though we are in for some entertainment. A duel between two Princes is rare but a duel between a Prince and a newly invested one too with his blessed mate will be worth watching" Vanez Blaine called over the silence. **

**Then a fanfare sounded which was something that I had never heard before and a crowd of Generals came in to watch the duel but the fanfare was for us to gather the attention of those who were watching. **

"**Who referees a match between two Princes or between us?" I asked.**

"**Only a fellow Prince can referee us" Prince Larten answered and then Prince Vancha walked into the halls.**

"**I heard the fanfare and I knew that a duel was about to take place and I might have guessed that I would be refereeing you two" Prince Vancha said as he stood in the referee box which was a new addition to the Halls of Sport.**

"**Duellists ready?" Prince Vancha asked.**

"**Ready as I will ever be. Bring it on" I replied.**

"**I am ready also" Prince Larten called down.**

"**Then salute and begin" Prince Vancha called to us. I knocked my staff against Prince Larten's and then I flipped up and onto a higher bar so that I had a vantage point. The duel commenced and I was not used to the Prince's blood inside me, I had never had so much strength flowing through me and I used it to my full advantage. Prince Larten came at me with all of his might but for the sixth or seventh time that year I sent him crashing to the floor with a nasty, quick combo that left him with a sore head and a snapped staff. **

**I stood on the centre of the Bars, took a little bow and did my victory dismount then I went to see to Prince Larten who was knocked out cold. I called for a stretcher and he was carted off down to the medical wing for stitches. **

"**I never knew that Prince's blood was that powerful" I said to Seba who was carrying the stretcher with Vanez and Prince Vancha (I had the other corner). We laid the unconscious Prince Larten on a bed and fetched the medic. I felt bad that I had done such a vicious move but that is how I liked to duel. **

**When Prince Larten came around from his unconscious state his first words were;**

"**What happened? I do not remember a thing" **

"**We duelled upon the Bars and I knocked you out with one of my combination moves. I defeated you and I nearly cracked your skull in half, I am so sorry my love" I said.**

"**It is fine I will add this scar to my collection of scars. You are so beautiful when you duel Arra" Prince Larten said.**

"**I am not Arra, I am Sarah. Arra died a long time ago" I said to Prince Larten who was obviously concussed.**

"**Oh yes now I remember you. You are my blessed mate and we were duelling when you inflicted this minor wound on my head" Prince Larten said.**

"**Yes that is correct but you are concussed and the wound is not minor. It needs stitches and you will have to take it steady for a few nights" I replied. **

"**That is a nasty wound on your head Sire. Forgive me if I hurt you when I am fixing this up" The Medic said. **

"**It is OK you have a job to do and I have had worse injuries than this" Prince Larten said.**

"**I know you have but I still feel bad for hurting you" I said. **

"**Do not be stupid, you were duelling me fairly. I should have seen it coming but do not feel bad for another stunning victory on the Bars and besides I took the risk and I knew that if I duelled you I may have been hurt which I have been but it is up to me if I want to duel you and risk getting hurt" Prince Larten replied as the Medic stitched up the gash on his head and bandaged it up firmly with a sterile patch and herbs that would aid healing and kill bacteria. **

"**Right Sire that is you patched up but as you suffered such a hard knock to the head I want you to stay here over the day for observation in case you have any funny turns or dizziness which can be associated with head injuries and concussion. I want you to let me know if you have any symptoms like dizziness, nausea, vomiting or a constant headache as they could be signs of a more serious brain injury. That is why I am keeping you here temporarily" The Medic said.**

"**Very well Medic if that is your recommendation. Can you go and fetch my cloak Sarah? I am a bit cold" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**OK my love I will not be long" I said and I disappeared to fetch the cloak that had been left by the Bars with blood on it. **

**I dropped the cloak off at the medical wing in the separate section that was reserved for the Princes and VIP guests like Mr Tall if his back was playing up. **

"**Thank you. You can stay here today if you wish as the medic is bringing an extra bed for you so you will not have to leave me" Prince Larten said.**

"**That is kind but I am happy to sleep in the Prince's Chambers where it is warmer and quiet as I need to sleep as I am shattered" I replied.**

"**Very well then I will join you as soon as I am able to as I hate not sleeping next to you" Prince Larten said.**

"**I know but I am here now my love" I replied as I leant in to kiss my mate.**

**Prince Larten returned my kiss and we held each other for ages until the Medic came in and checked Prince Larten and offered him some food and drink. **

"**I had better be going now my dear as I am exhausted. I still have to take the hawks out before I go to bed" I said.**

"**Alright but I will expect to see you at sunset before you go and complete your next lot of business" Prince Larten said.**

"**Of course I will come and see you" I said and with one long, passionate, final kiss I left my mate to recover under the expert care of the Prince's personal Medic.**

**I returned to my Chamber inside the Prince's Dome, I got undressed and I put on my pyjamas which were very comfortable and I loved them. They had been one of Prince Vancha's better ideas as he loved fur and he liked to live rough in the wilds for the most part. **


	30. My Three Mistakes

**Chapter 30 My Three Mistakes**

**I curled up in my coffin under Prince Larten's cloak and I drifted off into an uneasy, light sleep. I heard a noise and that woke me up and I looked around in the gloom to see a shadow moving around.**

"**Who is that moving around?" I called out.**

"**It's Prince Mika. I'm trying to find something" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Oh right. I thought you were somebody else" I said.**

"**Are you OK Sarah? You seem a bit down" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**I am missing my mate, I always curl up next to him in his arms to keep warm and I am freezing without him" I replied sadly.**

"**Well I could curl up next to you as I am lonely now that my mateship term has ended" Prince Mika suggested.**

"**But would that not make me unfaithful?" I asked.**

"**No it wouldn't if no-one else knows about it" Prince Mika laughed.**

"**I could never hurt my lover like that. I love Larten with all of my heart and my mateship vows mean something to me" I said.**

"**If that is how you feel I will leave you to shiver and remain faithful" Prince Mika said.**

"**No do not go please Mika stay" I called out to him although I will never know why.**

"**So now you want me to stay here? Make up your mind Sarah" Prince Mika replied as he clambered into my coffin and held me close to his chest. Prince Mika was so warm and I was so tired I was not really thinking straight. I did something that I should not have done but I could not help myself…I pecked Prince Mika on the lips and then he kissed me back with passion and I was swept away with the hormones that were racing through me. I explored Prince Mika's mouth with my tongue and he did the same to me. I unbuttoned his shirt and exposed his pale, warm flesh which I caressed with my hands whilst we still kissed deeply.**

"**Mika we should not be doing this" I said between kisses.**

"**I know but it feels so good right? Are you getting warm now?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Oh yes Sire I am very hot now" I replied between more kisses and caressing.**

"**Well then shall we take it to the next level?" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**Alright then let me take my clothes off" I said.**

"**No let me rip them off of you" Prince Mika said as he slashed my pyjamas into pieces.**

"**Oh Mika take me now" I said between passionate kissing and groping.**

"**As you wish" Prince Mika said as he plunged his manhood deep inside of me which made me gasp as it was bigger than my own mate's manhood. **

**I could feel Prince Mika moving in and out of me rhythmically but gently and he was so passionate and so warm. **

""**This is amazing, please do not stop" I said between gasps and harsh breathing.**

"**Am I better than Prince Larten?" Prince Mika asked me as he released his fluids into me.**

"**Ah yes you are" I screamed out.**

"**I thought I was better than him by the way you reacted to me when I released my fluids inside of you" Prince Mika replied as he spilled more of his fluids inside my body. **

"**Mika!" I screamed out loud as I came again for a third time. I was trying to keep the noise down but we were lost in the moment and we were consuming each other and it is hard to keep quiet when you are experiencing something like this. **

**Prince Mika collapsed on top of me when he had finished and we both curled up together like a pair of lovers in each other's arms whilst we both slept soundly. **

**I woke up with Prince Mika's arms around me and he was sound asleep. I remembered our passionate one night stand and I thought about how good it had been. **

**When Prince Mika eventually woke up he stretched and then he kissed me.**

"**Good Evening my angel, did you sleep well?" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**Yes I did thank you but this has to stop. I made a mistake yesterday" I replied.**

"**That may be so but it was a fun mistake though wasn't it?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Yes it was. I loved it but I cannot be unfaithful" I replied.**

"**You already have been unfaithful" Prince Mika said as he kissed me again and held me.**

**I tried to stop Prince Mika but he was just too good and soon I was kissing him back with passion and lust.**

"**Do you still want me to stop?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**No please do not stop now, not when I am so damn close" I said as Prince Mika worked his way down my body until his head was between my legs. **

"**Let me see what I can do to please you my angel" Prince Mika said as he licked me all over which sent waves of intense sensations through my body which made me scream out for more. I lay there until Prince Mika finished and I had no intention of stopping now that I was so horny. **

"**Take me please, I want you so much" I said as Prince Mika lined himself up with my body.**

"**Are you sure about this?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Yes I am sure. Please make me yours my love" I replied as once more Prince plunged himself into me and pounded away until I screamed out and I could feel his fluids pulsing through me.**

"**Mika, Mika, Mika" I screamed out as he was too good at what he was doing.**

"**I thought that this was meant to be a one night thing" Prince Mika said when he had finished me off.**

"**So did I but you are too good to deny" I replied with one last kiss before I left to go and shower as I had to go and see Prince Larten who was probably wondering where I had got to as it was way past sunset. **

"**I will see you later my angel and by the way my lips are sealed, nobody will ever know what went on between us and nobody heard us either" Prince Mika assured me. **

"**That is good to know and please do not call me "your angel" in public but in private it is OK" I said in response.**

"**I had no intention of doing that as it could give us away" Prince Mika replied as I left to go into the shower room to rinse his scent off of me not that Prince Mika smelt bad but if Prince Larten picked up his scent on me he would know of my infidelity which would break his heart.**

**I finally got to the medical wing and walked into the Prince's Bay and there was my mate sitting up in his medical bed eating.**

"**There you are what time do you call this? I have been waiting for you for ages" Prince Larten said when I walked into his room. **

"**I am so sorry my love but I overslept and then I had to shower as I spilt some blood on my clothes and it went everywhere as another one of those barrels leaked" I lied.**

"**Oh well that is a bit of a problem but at least you fixed it and why can I smell Prince Mika all over you?" Prince Larten asked sternly.**

"**I was very cold in bed yesterday as you were not there to hold me so Prince Mika gave me some of his fur blankets so that I could wrap up and keep warm" I explained.**

"**Ah that explains the smell then. Anyway enough of the questions how are you my dear?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I am a lot better for seeing you looking well my love. I hope that you make a full recovery" I replied.**

"**Come here, I have something for you" Prince Larten said.**

**I walked over to my mate and he pulled out from under his covers a piece of jewellery. **

"**I thought that you could not afford to buy me any more gifts. I do not deserve this" I said quietly as Prince Larten fastened the new bracelet around my wrist. This new bracelet was stunning as it was silver and set with rubies.**

"**Do you like it?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**Of course I do but I have done nothing to deserve it" I said.**

"**So becoming the Clan's first Vampire Princess is not a good enough reason?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**I am of course very grateful but I have nothing for you" I said.**

"**You do not need to give me anything my dear. I have you and that is all I will ever need" Prince Larten replied.**

"**That is one of the nicest things that anybody has ever said to me" I replied as I blushed a little bit.**

"**You had better go and complete your business now and the good news is that I can leave here tomorrow if I am well enough" Prince Larten replied as he held me close to him for what seemed like an age. I was happy but I felt really guilty over my infidelity. **

**I went off to the Prince's Dome to see if I had any business to attend to and I did. I had to listen to scout reports and check on our livestock numbers. I also had to go and collect our costumes for our big show that was coming up. **

**I took the carriage and I rode into town, I parked outside the outfitters and I knocked upon the large door.**

"**Who is it?" Dimitri asked from inside the door.**

"**It is Sarah. I have come to collect my costume order for the show" I replied.**

"**Well come on in and check out my handy work and that of my dedicated team of seamstresses and tailors" Dimitri said as he opened the door to his shop.**

"**Wow these are amazing, this was just what I was hoping for" I said as I looked around to see a range of costumes for every one of my fellow actors and actresses for our show. **

"**Here is your agreed money and you can come up to the mountain to watch our show if you like so that you can admire your costumes in use" I said.**

"**I'll give you a hand getting these into the carriage as some of them are very delicate" Dimitri replied and he carefully started folding the costumes into labelled chests that fitted neatly into the luggage rack that was on the back of the carriage. **

"**Thank you so, so much for all of your help Dimitri and thank you to all of your team also. I will let you join us after the show if you still want to be a part of our Clan" I said.**

"**I will have to think it over carefully but I am happy that you are pleased with my work" Dimitri said as he sat inside the carriage.**

"**Yah forward" I said and my horse set off towards the mountain. **

**When we arrived back at the mountain I got a couple of the guards to carry the chests inside the theatre costume department whilst I showed Dimitri around the halls.**

"**This is the Hall of Kheldon Lurt, it is where we come to eat and socialise" I said.**

"**It is huge and very nicely decorated" Dimitri commented.**

"**I decorated it with help from the Clan, I did the ceilings and the carvings over there" I explained.**

"**You did a lovely job" Dimitri complimented me.**

"**Thank you, come I will show you around the rest of my home" I said and I led Dimitri to the Prince's Dome and then to the shower room which was called the Hall of Purta Vin Grahl. **

"**So you live here all year round?" Dimitri asked me.**

"**Yes when I am not working at the circus and performing on stage" I explained.**

"**So you work as well as living here? That is great as that means that I could still have my business and live here doesn't it?" Dimitri asked.**

"**In theory yes if you keep the fact that you live here a secret for security measures" I explained.**

"**That is cool with me" Dimitri said.**

"**Come on I will show you the rest of the mountain" I said and I led Dimitri into the theatre and then to the medical wing.**

"**Well that is it" I said at the end of Dimitri's tour. "You have seen everything that there is to see and you have met some of my closest friends" I explained.**

"**Well thanks very much for the tour and I will see you at the show" Dimitri said.**

"**Anytime and you have my number so you can call me whenever you want" I said as I waved Dimitri off with a torch and pointed him in the direction of the town, it was getting light outside but it was not yet dawn.**

**I stopped in to see Prince Larten before I went to bed.**

"**Are you OK?" I asked.**

"**I am alright but I still feel a bit dizzy sometimes" Prince Larten replied.**

"**That is not so good but you are in the right place to heal" I replied as I held out my hands so that we could link our hands together. **

"**Yes that is true but it is now dawn so I am going to retire and I will see you tomorrow night" Prince Larten said as he pulled me closer to him and held me for a moment before I kissed him and left for my chamber where Prince Mika was waiting for me as I had anticipated.**

"**Evening my dear, sweet dark angel how are you?" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**I have been better. I am missing Prince Larten but I cannot get you out of my head" I admitted.**

"**I am here now so you do not need to be alone any longer my lovely, dark angel" Prince Mika said as he came closer to me and scooped me up into his arms.**

"**Please do not do this to me. It is hard enough for me already" I said.**

"**I cannot help it, you are so beautiful I just want to carry you off and make you mine" Prince Mika replied then he kissed me.**

"**I cannot do this again. We must not continue this foolishness" I said as I tried to protest but Prince Mika continued his kissing until I fell under his spell again and I returned his kisses and soon I was in his chamber in his coffin underneath his warm, soft body kissing him and we were holding each other close.**

"**I should not be doing this, this is wrong Mika and you know it is" I said.**

"**I know but look me in the eyes and tell me that you do not want me" Prince Mika replied.**

"**I cannot do that Mika as it is just too hard for me" I said reluctantly.**

"**I knew it, you love me don't you?" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**No but I have strong feelings for you Mika" I admitted.**

"**Just kiss me then and I will do the rest" Prince Mika said.**

**So I kissed Prince Mika with all of my pent up passion and he did the same, we were soon rolling over and every inch of my now naked skin was being caressed and kissed. I tried to pull away but I was enjoying it too much so I just went with it and I allowed Prince Mika to mate with me again and although it was wrong it felt so right at the same time. **

"**This is just too much Mika, I cannot take this anymore" I said whilst I tried not to scream out with the waves of pleasure that were going through me at that moment.**

"**You are enjoying it though aren't you?" Prince Mika said as he kissed me and pounded into me which made me enjoy it even more.**

"**I am loving the sensation but I feel so guilty, I should not be unfaithful to my blessed mate" I said between kissing and rolling over whilst Prince Mika continued to pump his fluids into me until I came screaming out his name which was a release but it was so, so wrong.**

"**Are you OK my angel?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**I am fine Mika; that was absolutely stunning. I have never mated like that with that amount of passion and with that amount of sensation. You are definitely better than my mate" I said as I lay in Prince Mika's arms and curled up beside him. **

"**Sleep well my dark angel, I will be here when you awake" I heard Prince Mika say as he too curled up next to me and closed his eyes. **

**I woke up in Prince Mika's arms, he was snoring softly so I went back to sleep. The next thing I knew was Prince Mika waking me up and holding me close to him whilst I woke up properly. **

"**Good evening my dark angel, how did you sleep?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**I slept well thank you but I must go as Prince Larten will be in here shortly so I have to shower and get your smell off of me as he picked up on it yesterday" I replied.**

"**Please stay for just a bit longer" Price Mika pleaded with me.**

"**I cannot risk being caught and I cannot do this anymore" I said sadly as I went into the shower room and plunged myself under the icy waterfall.**

"**Are you going to tell Prince Larten that your blessed mateship is over?" Prince Mika asked hopefully. **

"**I do not know to be honest. I need to think things through carefully. Please give me time to think and choose the best way to proceed" I replied as I continued to wash my body. **

"**I'll leave you to wash but I will see you later my dark angel" Prince Mika said as he left me alone in the shower room. **

"**Bye Mika, I love you" I called back.**

"**You love me?" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**Yes I think that I may indeed love you but like I said I need to think this over" I said as I wrapped a towel around myself. **

**Then Prince Mika left but before he left he stole a quick kiss which I returned and then I got dressed and went to see my mate who was still in the medical wing. **

"**Sarah there you are" Prince Larten said.**

"**Sorry I took so long I was showering and I could not find any clothing that fitted me" I said.**

"**That is OK darling. I am being released later on tonight. Have I missed any important business?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Nah there was only the usual crap. There is nothing for you to concern yourself with my love but I have missed you so much darling" I said as I sat down on Prince Larten's bed and snuggled up to him as I was still cold from the shower. Prince Larten put his arms around me and he held me close to him, then we kissed and it reminded me just why I was his blessed mate. **

"**Are you OK? You seem a bit upset about something" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**I have done something stupid and I regret it majorly. I have made three huge mistakes, please do not be angry with me" I said meekly.**

"**What have you done? It cannot be too bad" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**Oh believe me it is bad. I have been unfaithful to you and I have broken my mateship vows" I admitted.**

"**Why the hell would you do that to me?" Prince Larten asked angrily.**

"**I was confused, cold and lonely and Prince Mika was there. He offered to keep me warm as you know how cold it is, I refused at first but one thing led to another and I mated with him three times. I am so, so sorry. I do not know what came over me but I regret it and I feel so guilty" I said quietly before I burst into tears of real regret and fear.**

"**I am glad that you were honest and that you told me. I cannot believe that you would do that to me but I forgive you my love because you forgave me over the Samantha incident. I will not do anything and I will not say anything to anybody but please swear to me that it was just those times" Prince Larten said.**

"**I swear that it was just three times and never again" I said between sobs.**

"**Why are you so upset?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I am upset because I have let you down, I regret my actions and I was scared of what you were going to say but now that it is out in the open I feel better" I said quietly.**

"**Well at least you told me and now we can forget it and move on but it had better not happen again or I may not be able to forgive you so readily" Prince Larten warned me. **

"**I swear that from this point on I will never again be unfaithful to you and I thank you for your forgiveness and for your calm attitude" I replied as I tried to stop crying.**

"**I can see how much that you regret your actions and I believe you when you say that it was a mistake, no more tears need to be spilled over this my love" Prince Larten said as he passed me his handkerchief.**

"**Thank you" I said as I sorted myself out. **

"**You should go and attend to your business and I will be there presently. I will not mention this to Prince Mika but if wishes to mention it to me it is up to him" Prince Larten said.**

**I kissed Prince Larten and I held him tightly before I left his side but he followed me and scooped me up so that he could return the favour. We then made our way to the Prince's Dome hand in hand to tend to our business.**

**We entered the Prince's Dome and we took our seats, well Prince Larten sat on his throne and I sat upon his lap so that I could be close to him. I noticed that Prince Mika gave me a look as if to say "What are you playing at?" and then he gave me a quick smile before Prince Larten noticed anything. **

**I mouthed the words "He knows" at Prince Mika then I mouthed the words "He has forgiven me" and that was how we left it until our business was complete. **

"**Larten I was just thinking that maybe me and you should go hunting tonight as you are good and you have not been for a while" Prince Mika said.**

"**If Sarah comes too then yes, we have business to discuss anyway" Prince Larten said before he shot Prince Mika a look of seriousness.**

"**Yes Larten we do need to discuss something and I am sorry for my actions. I vow that I will not put another hand on your blessed mate, I don't know what I was thinking but please forgive me" Prince Mika replied with a look of fear on his face but he looked at me with such lust. **

"**If you have given me your word that you will not put another hand on my blessed mate then that is good enough for me but if it happens again I will kill you" Prince Larten said simply.**

"**Very well Larten" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Sire you are needed upstairs there is a problem" Seba said to Prince Larten.**

"**What is it Seba?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**It is Prince Darren, he has been badly wounded on a hunting trip and he is asking for you as it is pretty bad" Seba said anxiously. **

"**I will come presently" Prince Larten replied.**

"**What happened?" I asked.**

"**Prince Darren was after a stag but he mistimed his jump and the stag gored him with its antlers right in his chest, he is bleeding badly" Seba said looking grim.**

"**Well you must go to him Larten, I will stay here and wait for news" I replied.**

"**Alright I will be back as quickly as I can when I know the outcome but please pray to the Gods to spare him from this awful fate" Prince Larten replied.**

"**I will do that now" I said.**

**Then Seba and Prince Larten disappeared leaving me alone in the Prince's Dome with Prince Mika and my prayers.**

**I prayed for Prince Darren's deliverance from death and I asked the Gods to watch over him and to help him heal from his wounds. I was pretty worried about Prince Darren and it made me cry as I liked him a lot and it was always hard to hear when one of your colleagues had been hurt as in the past we had lost some of our closest friends due to being wounded. **

"**Are you OK my angel?" Prince Mika asked me.**

"**I am worried about Prince Darren and I am not your angel" I said whilst I tried to stop crying.**

"**Come here and let me hold you" Prince Mika said as he held out his own handkerchief for me to wipe my eyes.**

**I reluctantly sat on Prince Mika's lap and he held me close to him whilst I composed myself.**

"**Thank you" I said.**

"**You are welcome my dark angel" Prince Mika replied before he leaned in for a kiss which I allowed him to have briefly as it made me feel better but I had to pull away before Prince Larten returned.**

**I sat upon my own throne and I tried not to look at Prince Mika as I knew that if I looked at him I would only want to kiss him more and then I would regret it even more than what I already did.**

"**We have to stop this nonsense as we cannot be together. I am lucky that Prince Larten has decided to be lenient and forgive me for my indiscretions but he warned me that if it happened again he would not be so forgiving" I remarked sadly. **

"**I so want it to be dawn right now so that I can go to bed with you" Prince Mika said.**

"**Well it is not going to happen again" I said firmly.**

"**Are you sure about that?" Prince Mika asked naughtily.**

"**You gave your word Mika" I said.**

"**I said I wouldn't put one hand on you but I did not vow that I would not kiss you or bite you" Prince Mika replied with a lustful glint in his brown eyes. **

"**You are so bad Mika, what would Prince Larten say if he knew?" I asked.**

"**Well I kept my vow I just thought outside the box" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Good point" I said as I sat on Prince Mika's throne.**

"**You have your own throne why sit on mine?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**Because you will have to sit next to me or let me sit on top of you, we could mate right here if we wanted to and no-one could stop us" I said cheekily.**

"**Sarah why are you such a tease?" Prince Mika asked me.**

**I simply smiled and replied;**

"**It is in my nature to be a tease Mika and I know that you want me" I said as I gestured to him suggestively.**

"**Right that is it, screw waiting for the dawn I want you right here, right now" Prince Mika said as I stood up and he sat down upon his throne. I sat upon his lap, faced him and kissed him with the lust that I had been holding back all night.**

"**Ah Mika we cannot do this it is not right" I said between breathless kissing and passionate tongue wrestling.**

"**Screw what is right and just kiss me" Prince Mika replied.**

"**OK I will" So I kissed Prince Mika, he held me and I could feel him touching my skin whilst we had a tongue war that never seemed to end. **

**By the end of it I was out of breath and excited but I was also very happy.**

"**When will the other Princes return to the mountain?" I asked once my breath had returned.**

"**Prince Vancha is away on outside duties, Prince Darren is obviously injured and Prince Arrow is not due back until next week as he has been taking some time off as you are here now he doesn't need to be here all the time" Prince Mika replied as he straightened his robes and took a long drink of water as he too was out of breath.**

**Finally the dawn came and I was more than happy to go to bed and have Prince Larten next to me again. I could not wait to experience Prince Larten and myself mating together again.**

**Prince Larten turned up and he came straight into our chamber that we shared. Prince Mika was in the next room. **

"**Which room do we use?" I asked.**

"**Ours as it is the biggest and it is the most comfortable" Prince Larten replied as he spun me around in the air and kissed me deeply.**

"**How is this going to work? Mika is in the next room" I asked.**

"**Mika can go and take a running jump as far as I am concerned" Prince Larten said as I lay down in our coffin. Prince Larten began to kiss me and caress my naked skin, I went with the sensation and it felt so powerful but when Prince Larten went down on me I was in Paradise as he sent so many sensations pulsing through my body, then when he penetrated me and pulsed inside me so that our bodies became as one it was sheer perfection and I had missed it so much, we rolled again and again as we were fighting for control, I got on top and I rocked my hips and then we swapped over again and that was enough to make me scream out for more.**

"**What an experience, I forgot how good you actually were until then" I said when I could talk again. **

"**Hey Mika did you hear that?" Prince Larten called into the next room.**

"**Yes I heard you but I still think that I am better" Prince Mika replied.**

"**Can you match up to me Mika? Now that you have heard just what I can do to my blessed mate" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I can certainly give it my best shot and we'll see who the best is" Prince Mika said as he started to walk over to us. **

"**Well you will not have that opportunity" Prince Larten said as he stood up and brought out his sword.**

"**Do you want to fight me over this?" Prince Mika asked.**

"**I will defend my honour and my blessed mate until I give my last breath" Prince Larten replied as he prepared to fight.**

"**I am not going to fight you Larten. Enough blood has been spilt recently it is up to Sarah" Prince Mika replied.**

"**I choose my blessed mate but you were very good" I said.**

"**Ha I told you that I was good Larten" Prince Mika said.**

"**I do not really care Mika I just want to be in here with my mate in peace" Prince Larten said as he sheathed his sword.**

"**Alright I will walk away and I'll leave you two in peace but it was fun while it lasted" Prince Mika said as he slinked away.**

**I was sitting up at the time so I slowly lay down and I went back to sleep as I was really worn out and when my mate was snuggled up beside me I felt warm, safe and loved.**

**I left to shower and get breakfast for the two of us when I woke up I was smiling a bit as I had a funny thought.**

"**Is there something funny my dear that you want to share with me?" Prince Larten asked as he laced up my corset.**

"**Oh it is just that when I kissed you last night I could still taste Prince Mika inside my mouth from the previous night when I made my third and final mistake" I explained.**

"**What does Prince Mika taste like in your opinion then?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**He tastes like vodka and kissing you is like drinking fresh blood and eating fruit" I answered.**

"**Kissing you is like drinking vodka and cola with a hint of cherry" Prince Larten replied.**

"**That is good to know" I commented whilst I brought in our breakfast which was fresh bread, berries with honey and a bowlful of fresh partridge stew. **

**I ate quickly and I threw myself under the shower before I got Prince Larten to lace up my corset again. I then sat upon my throne and waded through a whole load of old maps to see which ones needed updating and which ones were inaccurate due to our recent renovations and new discoveries. **

**I called for some wine and some more stew as I was really hungry. **

**Throughout the whole night Prince Larten could not stop looking my way. I**

**would look back as if to say;**

"**I love you so much and I want you more than Mika" and then we would sigh and continue working. It was rather funny as we had to try not to laugh out loud when we were doing impressions of each other when no-one else was looking, it was really funny as the Generals and the Guards kept looking at us strangely and it was almost as if they wanted to be let in upon the joke. **

"**What has gotten into you two tonight?" One of the Generals asked.**

"**It is a private joke between us two" I replied.**

"**Judging by what I heard last night it must be something to do with your escapades" The General replied.**

"**Well I order you not to say anything as it is between us two OK?" I said.**

"**Yes my lady, I will of course obey all of your orders" and with that the nosy General disappeared out of the Prince's Dome and back to his post. **

**The rest of the night dragged on and by the end of it I was bored and tired. Being a Princess was great but some of it was really dull. At least I had something to look forward to when I went to bed that day. **

"**Right I am going to turn in as I am shattered my love" I said.**

"**Alright I may join you actually as it is almost dawn anyway and I am pretty tired too" Prince Larten replied.**

"**I'll be there soon too as I have had enough of sitting here like a statue" Prince Mika responded.**

"**Good day then Mika, I will see you tomorrow evening" I said and I left to go to bed.**

"**Oh can't I join you Sarah?" Prince Mika called out.**

"**No certainly not" I snapped.**

"**Oh alright good day Sarah I'll see you tomorrow evening" Prince Mika said.**


	31. Disaster at the Cirque Du Freak

**Chapter 31 Disaster at the Cirque Du Freak**

**A few nights after Prince Darren's run in with the stag that had gored him with its antlers he was well enough to leave the medical wing. Prince Darren now had a new scar that ran across his chest.**

"**That looks nasty" I said when I saw the injury.**

"**It is not too bad Sarah, the medic here is very good and I have suffered no lasting damage" Prince Darren replied.**

"**Well that is good and at least Prince Larten knows what herbs to use to help it heal properly like he helped me when that bear attacked me" I replied.**

"**That is true, I have had many herbs applied and now the wound is nearly healed but I am still going to have a horrible scar across my chest" Prince Darren complained.**

"**Well just be grateful that you are not dead" I snapped.**

"**Yes I should thank the Gods for my life Sarah, I heard you praying for me so thank you for that" Prince Darren said.**

"**You are welcome" I said.**

"**What have I missed in my absence from the Prince's Dome?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**Well you missed helping me going through the maps and checking to see which ones are still accurate and which ones are out of use" I explained.**

"**Well that must have been exciting. Did I miss anything else?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**You missed out on helping me to clean out our personal storeroom and you missed out on Prince Mika's impressions show which was hilarious but that is all" I replied.**

"**Oh right well I haven't missed out on anything too important then have I?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**No, nothing that is life threatening" I laughed.**

"**That's a relief. How is Larten anyway?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**You can ask him yourself since he is just coming into the Prince's Dome now" I said and sure enough there was Prince Larten who came up to me and held me round my waist before he lifted me up and spun me in the air which was his way of telling me that he had missed me.**

"**Evening" I said when my feet were back upon the ground.**

"**Hello my dark angel" Prince Larten said. (He must have heard Prince Mika calling me it)**

"**How are you?" I asked.**

"**I am perfectly well but I have some rather distressing news for you two" Prince Larten said.**

"**Oh, what news is that Larten?" I asked looking worried.**

"**It is Mr Tall, he has been found dead in his van with no obvious signs of a struggle or of a break-in" Prince Larten replied glumly.**

"**Oh that is awful news Larten. I guess that we will have to return and attend his funeral" I replied as a tear trickled down my left cheek. **

"**I am as shocked as you are. It is never nice to hear of a friend's passing" Prince Darren said before he coughed slightly. **

**Prince Larten handed me his handkerchief as I was very upset by the news of my friend's passing. I had liked Mr Tall a lot and now that he was dead it was a bit of a shock and it left me wondering about what was going to happen to the Cirque Du Freak and its performers now that he was gone as for many of the performers the Cirque Du Freak was their home and their only refuge from the cruelty and ridicule of the outside world. **

**Some of the performers were OK as they could hide their talents but for others like the Von family it was not that simple to hide a family of five who were nearly all half-snake and half-human. **

**I was pleased that Prince Darren was well enough to travel with us and pay his respects but it meant that we had to make the long journey from Romania to England as that was where the Cirque Du Freak had been performing for their five hundredth anniversary before this had hit them although the Cirque Du Freak had actually been performing for longer than that but nobody knew exactly how long! **

"**I guess that we had better prepare for a very long journey ahead of us. Can the Clan cope with three of their leaders away?" I asked.**

"**Well Prince Arrow is back and so too is Prince Vancha, I can always ask Seba to help out if they get a bit stuck as he is very wise and he will make the best choices for the good of our Clan" Prince Darren said.**

"**Yes I think that would be acceptable but Seba can only advise but he cannot make any decisions as he is not actually a Prince but I am sure that his advice will be invaluable when it comes to important matters" Prince Larten said.**

"**Do you think that Mr Tall is in Paradise or is he somewhere else?" I asked.**

"**I am not sure if he even had a religion but he was always very loyal to our Clan so maybe the Gods of the Vampires gave him a pass into Paradise" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Well we will not know until we ourselves go there but as long as he does not end up in the Lake of Souls for eternity anywhere will be OK" I said sadly. **

"**Oh believe Mr Tall will not end up in the Lake of Souls as he led a good life and the Lake of Souls is for doomed souls or ones that Des Tiny stole and did not turn into Little People" Prince Larten explained.**

"**How are we going to get to England without any money and no way of using the Orient Express again as you know what happened last time" I said remembering how I had been abducted at knifepoint and kept a prisoner inside a sewer that had been disused by a vampaneze who had been named Damian and he was an old enemy of Prince Larten's who had wanted revenge on him. **

"**Shit Larten I just thought about something important" I said.**

"**What is that my dear?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**Well when we poisoned the vampaneze Damian was not among them, he did not attend the party so he is still alive and just think if he has blooded anybody then the vampaneze could come back to threaten us" I revealed.**

"**I do not think that will happen Sarah because I took care of Damian on the battlefield when we had our battle in the cave, I beat him to a pulp and then I killed him before I buried him face down in the ground so that he can never reach Vampaneze Paradise if there is such a thing" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Phew that is a relief, I was panicking for a moment then" I said.**

"**By the way we are travelling to England by a ferry that sails around the Baltic and we can easily stow away on board for a week or two until we reach this place called Portsmouth that is not too far from where the Cirque Du Freak is in mourning" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I have not been on a ferry before so that will be fun. Have you ever been on board a ferry?" I asked.**

"**Yes but it was a huge ship that was bound for America and not a passenger ferry. I was on board with this young girl called Malora who stuck to me like glue. She had dreams of becoming my mate and that is all she ever spoke about. It was the only thing that was on her mind. I was very ill on board the boat and Malora helped me to survive but it went horribly wrong. I was taken over by an urge that I could not control, I ripped the throat out of everybody who was on board including Malora and it was almost as if I had fed upon an ocean of blood" Prince Larten explained.**

"**Oh my word, I had absolutely no idea that you had done that but I of course knew about Malora as you told me about her. Remind me to sleep with a stake under my pillow" I laughed.**

"**You mean under our pillow and that is not funny" Prince Larten replied snappishly. **

"**When does the boat dock?" I asked.**

"**It picks up passengers all along the Baltic coastline and we can quite easily flit into another country, pick up the ferry and leave for England within the next couple of nights" Prince Larten said.**

"**Of course I can help you carry your stuff and I can act as a lookout whilst you two sleep but do try not to keep me awake if you are up to no good" Prince Darren cut in. **

"**It will be nice to have you with us but what should we take? How long are we going for? What do we wear to the funeral?" I asked.**

"**Well black robes are customary for us Princes; you could get away with a simple black dress. We are going for a week or two and we should take food, spare clothing, stuff to entertain us and as much money as we can gather as English hotels are not cheap. We could stay at the Cirque Du Freak but you no longer have a tent with Evra and my van is not big enough for the three of us plus our belongings as it would be a push to get three of us in a small campervan with a double coffin, a hammock and could you cope with living in there for two weeks?" Prince Larten asked Prince Darren. **

"**Not really. I used to hate it in that stuffy van but it is OK for you two as it is more like a love nest than a permanent home and I have missed hotel beds and hotel breakfasts" Prince Darren said. **

"**I agree a hotel it is as it is the best option. We can have a double room and Darren can have his own room which makes sense" I said. **

"**Yes that is the best option, I guess that I will have to dig out my old civilian clothing again as capes and cloaks would make us stick out and we want to blend into our surroundings and with the surrounding humans" Prince Larten said, he looked annoyed but resigned to do his duty and attend Mr Tall's funeral with us in tow.**


	32. The Funeral of Mr Tall

**Chapter 32 the Funeral of Mr Tall**

**We left the mountain with several suitcases of clothing, weapons and cash that I had gathered together which I was going to buy food and bribe humans with so that they would keep quiet if they found us. **

**I had insisted upon taking enough clothing to last for a month in all weather conditions and enough clothing so that I could change depending on the situation. I advised Prince Darren to do the same but Prince Larten was stubborn and he did not pack much at all in the way of clothes but he took plenty of weapons and our special fold away camping gear in case we got stuck anywhere. **

**We sneaked aboard the ferry in the dead of the night. We went right down to the bottom of the ship where the cars were parked as that was where the storeroom was where we could hole up for a week or two until we reached Portsmouth. **

"**Well this is nice" I remarked when we entered the storeroom that was rather large and airy as storerooms went. **

"**It is better than the train but it is still not nice being holed up in here for a fortnight and where are you going to hide our things? Where is Darren's hammock going to go?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I am not sure but we will manage as we have had worse than this and we survived that" I replied.**

"**Yes that is a good point. I am shattered so I am going to bed now though as flitting took a lot of energy out of me. You two can explore the ship but do not get caught whatever you do" Prince Larten said.**

"**I am staying with you" I said.**

"**No go and have fun with Darren as he looks bored Sarah. I will still be here when you get back my love" Prince Larten said.**

"**No Larten my love I want to stay with you whilst Darren goes out on his own as we have to discuss something" I said.**

"**Oh right well in that case Darren please go somewhere and make yourself scarce oh and try to stay out of trouble as I know what you are like" Prince Larten instructed. **

"**Alright I'm going. Phone me if you want me for anything" Prince Darren said and he left to go and explore. **

"**Right now that Darren has gone I can relax" I said.**

"**What did you want to talk to me about?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I do not really know I just said it to get rid of Darren so that I can lay with you and be close to you without being watched by a pair of beady eyes" I replied.**

"**That makes sense my love but I am totally exhausted so I cannot really do much to you" Prince Larten explained.**

"**Well you can kiss me at least and you can hold me in your arms" I suggested.**

"**I can manage that darling but that is about all" Prince Larten said as he enclosed his arms around my body and kissed me deeply and with such passion that it made my head spin.**

**I held on to my mate's neck with my arms locked and he held my waist whilst we made out and rolled over a few times until I was on top and I was in a position to rip my lover's shirt off. **

**I started to run my sharp nails down Prince Larten's chest and in doing so I ripped the fabric of his shirt which exposed his scarred flesh underneath. **

**I touched my lover's flesh, I kissed it, rubbed it and I bit at it because I was so turned on and my urge to mate was stronger than what I was used to, I put it down to the Prince's blood in my veins.**

"**I am really not able to do much to you as I am really low on energy but I can give you some entertainment if you want me to" Prince Larten said as he went in to give me another long, deep, passionate, lustful kiss.**

**I responded by having a tongue wrestle with my mate and we sucked each other's tongues which felt good for both of us. I pulled my underwear off and I positioned myself in a way that would give me stimulation.**

"**We can do a sixty-niner if you like" I suggested.**

"**I am not sure what that is" Prince Larten said.**

"**It is where we give each other oral sex at the same time. I will basically lie on top of you with my clitoris over your mouth and my mouth is by your manhood and we pleasure each other with our tongues until we come together" I explained.**

"**Oh it is what I call double up oral sex but I know what you mean and I am good at those kind of moves as you know" Prince Larten said as I adjusted my position so that I would receive the best pleasure from my mate as he certainly knew how to make me come during oral sex. **

**Then we started to pleasure each other, I started off slowly and I moved slightly so that Prince Larten could lick the whole of my clitoris and the surrounding area whilst I gave him the best sucking off that I could muster. **

**It was so damn good too when we got into the swing of things, I had to stop doing what I was doing so that I could enjoy all of the sensations that I was enduring. I waited until I had come and then I finished Prince Larten off with my tongue and my hand until he spilled his fluids into my mouth which I of course swallowed and there was so much of it! I figured out that you do not actually have to do much to be satisfied for another night or two. **

"**How was that for you?" Prince Larten asked when he had finished coming inside my mouth.**

"**I bloody loved that, that was so much fun for such a basic position" I replied when I could speak again as I had nearly gagged when my mate had come inside my mouth. **

"**How was it for you my love? Did I do you justice?" I asked.**

"**You made me have a very powerful experience just then and I have not produced that amount of fluid for a while and surprisingly we were quite quiet and we made hardly any mess which is quite unusual for us" Prince Larten said as he kissed me and pulled his cloak over both of us so that we could sleep for a bit until Prince Darren came back in and disturbed us.**

**I went back to sleep until I thought that it was night time. I slept right through because Prince Larten had worn me out with his entertainment but it had felt so, so good and I could not wait to get into our hotel room and then we would have more room to do stuff to each other properly but secretly I was still wishing to be in Prince Mika's coffin as he was so much better than my own blessed mate. **

"**Sarah have I ever told you that I am actually bisexual?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**No you have never mentioned it as far as I am aware" I replied, I was quite surprised by his confession.**

"**Well I am and years ago I and somebody in the Clan had a little thing for each other, I was a lot younger and I was not very wise back then but now I realise how stupid I was" Prince Larten said.**

"**Oh right well that does not really bother me as long as you remain faithful to me" I replied.**

"**Well that is just it you see. I miss being with a man and having that different sensation. I feel so ashamed but having Darren here has reawakened that part of me, when he was first blooded at the Cirque Du Freak I caught him kissing Evra but he never mentioned it to anyone. I walked in on them and then after I lost my temper with Darren he came onto me one night. He was having nightmares and he asked to sleep in my coffin so that I could wake him if he was having a nightmare, I agreed reluctantly and then Darren lay on top of me.**

**He kissed me and I was shocked but I returned the kiss and we spent the day in my coffin. I always regretted it as it made me seem irresponsible and that is a line that a mentor and his student should never cross. Seba would kill me if he knew and Darren never forgave me for it as he regretted it straight afterwards and so did I but I still get cravings for a man's touch" Prince Larten explained.**

"**Well if you want to find a man then that is up to you entirely but do not expect me to wait around for you, it would hurt me too much" I said.**

"**So sleeping with one of my closest and most trusted friends did not hurt me?" Prince Larten replied.**

"**It was a bad mistake, it was three stupid mistakes and I am sorry. What more can I do? The past is past" I said.**

"**I know you are sorry but it still hurts me" Prince Larten said.**

"**It hurts me that you want to be with a man" I snapped.**

"**I do not want to be with a man I just want to have a one day stand with one" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well fine go and do that and if you do that our mateship is over. I will get with Mika if you do that to me" I shouted.**

"**Fine then if that is how it is. If you will not let me express myself then I cannot be with you any longer. I need to be free Sarah" Prince Larten said.**

"**I need a faithful mate and I want to be loved" I said.**

"**You do have both of those things but I am not happy" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well leave me then if that is the case. We have been together for years and we have lost our spark. This relationship is a joke as one minute you are all over me and the next you will not even touch me" I replied. **

"**Fine I will leave you if you want me to. I do love you but I am not in love with you like I thought that I was anymore" Prince Larten said.**

"**I do not want you to leave me I want you to be happy and that is all I have ever wanted for us both" I said as I tried not to cry.**

"**We need a break from each other though as it is too intense. We are always together and it is too much. If we spend time apart then I will miss you and it will bring us closer together as absence makes the heart grow fonder" Prince Larten said.**

"**So we are not splitting up but we are going on a break to clear our heads?" I asked.**

"**Yes we are together but apart and if you wish to have a new mate temporarily you may have one" Prince Larten said.**

"**I do not want anybody but you, I know that now" I said sadly.**

"**Well you obviously like Mika and he likes you too" Prince Larten said.**

"**I did but that was just hormones from where we had mated and bonded but it did not mean anything to me really" I explained. **

"**Well you still did it and you could have stayed in the medical wing with me if you were cold, I would not have minded" Prince Larten said.**

"**I know that but I was not thinking straight. So if we are now on a break what exactly does it mean?" I asked.**

"**It means that I need space from you but I will still talk to you and hold you close to me. It is like being good friends for a while that is all it means" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Oh well it as not as bad as I thought then. Where is your mateship band?" I asked. **

"**I removed it so that I can feel temporarily released from my vows" Prince Larten said.**

"**That is really hurtful but if that is how you want it then I will take mine off too" I said and I removed all four of my rings that had meant so much to me. **

"**That way when we reinstate our mateship we can start again from the beginning like a new start from both of us" Prince Larten said.**

"**Alright, I do not like it but my hands are tied so from this point on we are good friends until you say otherwise" I replied sadly. **

**Then Prince Darren walked in.**

"**Hey what is up with you two? You look miserable" Prince Darren said.**

"**Oh we have had an argument and we have decided to split up temporarily as we need space" I explained as I tried not to cry too much and I held up my hand so that Prince Darren could see that I was not wearing my rings. **

"**Well I feel for you Sarah as I have gone through the same thing but it was different for me as I was close to Larten once but he has regretted that day ever since and so do I" Prince Darren said.**

"**You mean the time when you shared a coffin and explored each other before you decided that it was not for you" I said.**

"**How do you know about that?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**Because that is how our argument started. Prince Larten said that he wanted to be with a man and I said that if he did that I would leave him, we argued and now we have split up temporarily" I explained.**

"**Oh I see. That is so unfair Larten you should show Sarah more respect" Prince Darren said.**

"**What gives you the right to tell me how to deal with my business?" Prince Larten asked angrily.**

"**You forget that we are all equal now and I can tell you how it is as I too am a Prince" Prince Darren said.**

"**Well I do not like it Darren" Prince Larten said.**

"**I don't like the fact that you did not stop me from kissing you and I hate the fact that you returned it as that was crossing a line that should never be crossed. I was thirteen years old Larten that makes you a bit dodgy in my opinion" Prince Larten said.**

"**I agree but I made an error of judgement and it will never happen again, not with you anyway" Prince Larten said.**

"**At least I was old enough but it still hurt like a bitch Larten" I said.**

"**What happened between you two then?" Prince Darren asked. **

"**Well we decided to have a relationship, I was blooded and I faked my death like you did and then when we were on the train before I was abducted Larten took my innocence from me and it was hell" I explained to Prince Darren.**

"**It could not have been that bad Sarah. I tried my best to make it bearable for you" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I lied and it was like the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I hated you for it for a long time but then you made it up to me by showing me the positive sides to sex" I said.**

"**I am sorry if I hurt you it was not my intention but just think about all the fun that we have had over the years and how many times have you entered Paradise because of me?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I have entered Paradise at your hands a few times I grant you but it is not that great and sometimes I fake my enjoyment" I admitted.**

"**You fake it?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes to keep your ego in check but you are not as good as what you think that you are and Prince Mika is a lot better than you" I replied.**

"**So do you fake all of those nights when you scream and beg for more?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes I have done in the past but recently it has all been real" I explained.**

"**So three nights ago was real?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**That really was one of the best nights that I have ever had but our mateship night was faked for the most part. I didn't enjoy that night at all" I admitted.**

"**Why not I was on top form was I not?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes but I was not getting any sensations from it so I faked it and then I tried to make it better for you but I was not up for it really" I said.**

"**I cannot believe this Sarah I never thought that to be the case in a million years. You must be a very good actress to make me believe such a convincing performance" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I felt bad that you were not doing it for me so I tried to make it better but it was not that great. Prince Mika actually does it for me. He knows exactly where to touch me and he can make me come within seconds if he does it right. You should ask him for some tips" I laughed.**

"**There is not much point if I cannot satisfy you despite how hard I try to make you have a decent orgasm" Prince Larten said, he was obviously hurt but I had to tell him the truth. **

"**Well this isn't awkward is it?" Prince Darren said.**

"**Sorry Darren but I have to get this off of my chest as I have bottled it up for so long" I replied.**

"**Thank you for telling me Sarah but what can I do about it?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Well I do not think that it matters anymore since we have split up. I do love you so, so much that bit is true and real but physically I am not sure" I said.**

"**What is it that I do that puts you off?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**It is not like that it is just that you do not hit my G Spot and you do not lick me out properly either, not like Prince Mika did" I replied.**

"**Well I will try harder in future but you will have to guide me as I have never had problems before and I have never had a complaint either until now so I must be good for something" Prince Larten said.**

"**You are a very, very good kisser and your love bites are second to none but the actual sex is not great, sometimes it is amazing and other times it is not so good and I do not know why that is" I said. **

"**Well what can I say? I really had no clue about any of this. Is that why you slept with Mika? Was I not satisfying you enough?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**That was partly the reason and the other reason was that I was so hot for it and Prince Mika offered himself to me, I was weak and I could not resist his charms. When he kissed me my whole body tingled and he used his tongue in such a way that I was completely consumed by him. I was powerless to resist his skills and when he entered me he pulsed inside me with such skill that he could keep my whole body tingling and I was already asking for more even before that point, he truly was amazing" I explained.**

"**So I will have to improve some of my moves and I will have to ask Mika for advice as he seems to know you better than I do and how long have we been in a mateship for now?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I am not sure but we have just celebrated our fifth anniversary so let us say five years as blessed mates and about sixteen years or more before then so we are looking at twenty years roughly" I said. **

"**That is a long time to be with someone and of course neither of us looks any different but over the years have I not been good to you? Have I not totally spoiled you and given you everything?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes you have given me everything and you have spoilt me but I need more than that, I need the whole package and when we mate it is not as good as it was in the beginning so I wanted somebody different to give me a bit of excitement and that is why I went with Prince Mika" I said. **

"**Well I will spend our time apart trying to improve myself, I will ask for advice but it is rather embarrassing for me to do as I am well known in the Clan as being one of the best that there is and every female in the Clan would give their right arm to even have a chance with me or so they say as I have such a hold over them" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well go and give yourself to them then and then you can ask them if they liked it or not" I suggested.**

"**I might do that and then they can give me a rating as to how good I actually am but I will ask Mika for advice as he clearly knows how to please you" Prince Larten said. **

"**Well you do not have to ask for references but you should be able to tell if somebody is really enjoying what you are doing to them a tip is that if you fake it you tend to be over the top and then you tend to finish off quicker as you want to get out of whatever it is that the guy is doing that you do not like. However if it is real the girl will be more inclined to go on top and take over or she will return the favour" I explained.**

"**Oh right so whenever you say that you cannot go any longer and you stop you are not enjoying it as much and when you rock on top of me and finish me off you are enjoying it? That is good to know" Prince Larten said.**

"**Can you stop talking about this now? It is embarrassing enough for me as it is" Prince Darren cut in.**

"**I forgot that you were here Darren, sorry" I said.**

"**It is alright, so what are you two going to do now?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**Well we are going to have a break from the relationship and we are going to sort out our problems before we reinstate our mateship but we are still good friends in the meantime" I said.**

"**Oh well if you think that is a good idea then I hope that you can work through your problems and if not you gave it a good go and you had fun" Prince Darren said.**

"**It was a good relationship and it still is but I am not in love like I once was. The spark has gone so we need to get it back somehow" I said.**

"**I understand" Prince Darren said.**

"**I am going to explore the ferry. I need to get out of here for a while and get some fresh air" I said.**

"**Alright I will see you later" Prince Larten said.**

"**Is that all I get? No hug or spin around?" I asked.**

"**Not if we are only good friends" Prince Larten said.**

"**Stuff you then Larten!" I said as I hugged Prince Darren and I jumped when he lifted me up and spun me around before he brought me back down to the ground and held me before I left.**

"**I did not know that you could do that Darren. Who taught you?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I have seen you do it many times, I just watched and then I practiced with Julia to get it right. Was that any good?" Prince Darren asked me.**

"**It was very good but you are quite a bit shorter so I was not up as high but the move was still fun" I replied.**

"**It was rather good but you need to really get a good hold and it must be faster to make it more effective. Let me show you" Prince Larten said as he darted forward and hoisted me up higher than normal so that I felt like I really was flying.**

"**Watch my feet" Prince Larten said as he spun me around high and fast before he brought me back down and held onto me as my head was spinning.**

"**You need to make the lady dizzy or it is not worth doing as that is the whole point of doing it, the lady feels like she is flying and then she learns to trust you and she knows that she is safe in your hands and that you will never drop her" Prince Larten said.**

"**Now I understand why you do it, it is a bonding thing" Prince Darren said.**

"**How are you feeling Sarah?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**Dizzy as always but I felt one hundred per cent safe up there and I trust you to within an inch of my life when you do that move" I replied.**

"**See how effective it is at building trust between the pair of you that is why I do it. The first time that I ever did it I was young and I took Arra by surprise, I sneaked behind her, spun her around; then I leapt off of the Bars and held her steady even when I landed. Arra was not expecting that and she jumped but she always safe and she learnt to watch her surroundings after that" Prince Larten explained.**

"**Well I am going now but I will be back later" I said and I tried to leave but Prince Larten was still holding me which was unexpected as I had quite forgotten that he was holding my hands and he was standing behind me like he normally did.**

**I gave Prince Larten's hands a gentle squeeze as I left and I turned around and gave him a quick look of longing as I had not wanted to split up with him but I just went along with it to keep him happy. **

**I left the storeroom but I stayed just long enough to overhear the two Princes talking.**

"**For somebody who you say you want to be split up from you certainly don't act that way" Prince Darren said.**

"**What do you mean" Prince Larten asked suspiciously.**

"**Well the way that you spun Sarah around when you said that you wouldn't and the way that you were holding her just now and when she looked at you, you looked back at her with a look that says it all" Prince Darren said.**

"**It is just habit and I did not want you to hurt Sarah if you spun her around wrong that is all" Prince Larten said and he sounded annoyed. **

"**I was merely passing a comment about my observations that is all. I have always had feelings for Sarah but I never acted upon them" Prince Darren said.**

"**Well I did not know that but there is nothing that you can do about it. You need my consent first and I will give it to nobody" Prince Larten said.**

"**Why do I need your consent? I am a Prince" Prince Darren said.**

"**You need my consent because of the close relationship between us three. We all share the same blood so it is like mating with your sister" Prince Larten said.**

"**I never saw it like that but fine if you won't consent to it then I will forget about it. I should stay loyal to Julia anyway as I am trying hard not to be a cheat" Prince Darren said.**

"**That is a wise idea and I am really sorry about the past when we shared that day together. I regret it but I liked teaching you" Prince Larten said.**

"**What made you do it Larten?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**I was frustrated and I saw you kissing Evra so I thought that you might want me to show you another side of things" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I secretly did, that is why I kissed you but I did not expect it to go that far, I only wanted you to show me how to improve my technique" Prince Darren said.**

"**Well I did apologise" Prince Larten said.**

"**You know that I still have not got it right, Julia always complains as I am not doing it right" Prince Darren said sadly.**

"**Is it just kissing that you struggle with?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes and sucking tongues but the rest of it is not a problem for me" Prince Darren said.**

"**I could teach you but it is a practical lesson" Prince Larten said.**

"**OK I am a bit scared" Prince Darren said.**

"**First point never you should be afraid, nerves minimise performance potential" Prince Larten said.**

"**OK. What is it that I am doing wrong Larten?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**I am not sure as I have not seen you kiss Julia but it sounds like you are sucking too hard or you are pulsing too much or not enough. You have to give the lady space to use her tongue but you should lead at the same time. It is tricky to explain" Prince Larten explained.**

"**I need to practice and if I could show you maybe then you would understand" Prince Darren said.**

"**Well what do you want to do to solve the problem?" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well if I and Sarah kissed then she could tell me what is wrong and then you could help me to change it" Prince Darren said. **

**At that point I walked back into the storeroom.**

"**That was an interesting conversation that I just heard" I said.**

"**You were listening?" Prince Darren asked me.**

"**Yes and I could teach you how to kiss properly but it will cost you" I said.**

"**What do you want Sarah?" Prince Darren asked.**

"**I want you to mate with me Darren so that Larten will get jealous and take me back" I whispered in Prince Darren's ear.**

"**No I am not going to cheat on Julia" Prince Darren said.**

"**Well you will have to get Larten to teach you then as I am unavailable" I replied.**

"**Alright that's fine by me" Prince Darren huffed.**

**Prince Larten had gone out of the room at this point but he came back in.**

"**Who will be teaching Darren how to kiss his mate properly?" Prince Larten asked. **

"**I am not going to because Prince Darren refused my offer of a price for my knowledge" I replied.**

"**And what was your price?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I said that I would teach Darren if he mated with me to make you jealous and take me back" I admitted.**

"**You are very clever to think of something as devious as that. I have said before you must have the brain of a vampaneze" Prince Larten said.**

"**Would it have worked?" I asked.**

"**It probably would have actually worked and if you want me back that much already then it just proves to me that yet again I have been a total idiot and I have ended probably the best thing that has ever happened to me so far but you do have a point about me not being there for you and it was a bit intense. Did you mean the other stuff too?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**The things that I said about you not satisfying me and how I faked my orgasms I said to hurt you, I was very upset that you wanted to be with a man so I got you back and Prince Mika is very good in bed and he did give me a very, very powerful orgasm that lasted so that part was justified but the rest I did not mean" I confessed.**

"**So I am good at what I do to you in bed after all?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Yes but I like a bit of variety and it has all been the same recently I want something different occasionally" I replied.**

"**That is understandable. Getting back to Darren's problems I will teach you what to do to please Julia and you can practice on Sarah" Prince Larten said.**

"**But I want to practice with you" Prince Darren blurted out without thinking.**

"**That is not wise Darren" Prince Larten said.**

"**I know but screw being wise and just teach me" Prince Darren said.**

"**Are you sure that you want me to do this Darren?" Prince Larten asked in his teacher's voice.**

"**Yes I'm sure, it is only kissing anyway so no harm can be done" Prince Darren said.**

"**That is what you said before and you begged me to show you more last time" Prince Larten said.**

"**I was horny at the time but I am OK now" Prince Darren said.**

"**Well as long as you are sure about this Darren I will begin my lesson so pay attention" Prince Larten said.**

**I stood back and watched as this was going to be interesting.**

"**Come here then and let me see where it is going wrong for you" Prince Larten said.**

**Prince Larten was sitting down at this point so Prince Darren walked over to him and he stood there like he was afraid or something.**

"**Are you afraid of me?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**No but I am just nervous as I have not been this close to you for such a long time now and it has brought back the feelings that I used to have" Prince Darren said.**

"**Do you want me to lead or can you handle it?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**If you start I'll take over when I'm back into the swing of things" Prince Darren said.**

**So Prince Larten pulled Prince Darren gently on his lap and there he used his decades of knowledge to get Prince Darren into the swing of things. **

**They sat there for what seemed like an age kissing and every so often they would stop and Prince Larten would give some pointers and then they would continue practically snogging until Prince Larten finally stopped it and said that Prince Darren had mastered how to kiss properly and that they no longer needed to practice.**

"**That was one lesson that I will never forget thanks" Prince Darren said when he had got his breath back as they had kissed for forty five minutes non-stop practically.**

"**Well I may not be your mentor but I will still help you out when you require it" Prince Larten said.**

"**It was interesting to watch" I commented.**

"**It is even more fun to do though" Prince Darren smirked.**

"**I know it is and I miss it" I said.**

"**I was so stupid to suggest that we should split up temporarily" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well that is an error of your judgement; it was a poor judgement call" I said in a voice that sounded similar to Prince Larten's. I was mocking him jokingly.**

"**I agree it was a poor judgement call on my part but it can be easily fixed" Prince Larten replied.**

"**How can we fix it? We have broken our vows and we need to reinstate them" I said.**

"**No we do not because the vows still stand but if you want to reinstate our vows properly then we can. We can do what humans call a reaffirmation of our vows which means that we basically hold a small, private ceremony with just us, our closest friends and the rest of our fellow Princes. We could get our rings blessed again" Prince Larten suggested.**

"**Why would it be any different this time? You know what we are like, we fight and then we patch things up again pretty quickly. Is there any point in reaffirming our vows if they are only going to get broken again?" I replied.**

"**Well I do try my best not to break my vows but you were the one who broke them this time and there is a point to it if you love me as much as what you say that you do" Prince Larten replied.**

"**I know I broke my vows, I was confused and I made three mistakes but I will make it up to you" I said.**

"**That is good to know Sarah" Prince Larten said.**

"**So are we getting back together now?" I asked sounding hopeful.**

"**Of course, we never should have split in the first place as it was just a stupid argument, we were split up for three hours and it was awful for you and for me it was just a silly idea but at least now we have sorted out our issues" Prince Larten said as he held out his hands for me, I walked over to him slowly and I too held out my hands until my scars were level with Prince Larten's. **

"**Scars on scars, blood on blood I forgive you" Prince Larten said.**

"**And I forgive you too" I replied.**

**At this point I stepped closer so that we could hold each other close, I had missed this and I was going to make the most of it. We held each other for ages and then we kissed each other. Our kiss was rough and it felt as though we had not seen each other for ages as it was a bit full on but it felt great. **

**The last thing that we did was to put our rings back onto each other's fingers, I had felt like a big part of was missing without my rings on but now that I had all four of them back on my finger I was fine and I felt complete again. **

**I was still a bit apprehensive about taking Prince Larten so readily but I missed him so much and even if he was in the same room as me unless he was right next to me I still missed him which sounds stupid but love does crazy things to people whether they are vampires or not as we are all basically the same. **

**We sat down after a while as we had been standing up for ages and I was glad to have my mate back again. The other good news was that the ferry was only two days away from docking in Portsmouth; I would be pleased to get off of this boat that rocked and made me feel a bit ill. Also most of the baggage had fallen off of the baggage racks and it made it a tight squeeze for the three of us plus our own baggage and not one of us was looking forward to the funeral as they are horrible things and we had lost so many friends that it was getting worse as we had very few friends as it was.**

"**My, my Larten I do declare that I shall be glad to get off of this boat when it docks. I feel dreadful and it smells in here of horrible things" I complained.**

"**Do you have sea sickness?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**I do not believe so I think that I have picked up a bug from somewhere and it is not a nice one either" I said, I looked very pale and ill.**

"**Well we will be there soon and then you can rest in a nice, warm five star hotel for a few days to recover" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well that is something that I will enjoy as I miss hotels and their mini bars" I smirked.**

"**I miss having a large bed and not being required to do anything" Prince Darren said.**

"**I miss nothing about hotels but I do miss England and its heritage and besides I grew up near here but where I grew up has changed an awful lot since me and you took Murlough on and it is nothing like what it was when I was a child" Prince Larten said.**

"**Yes cities tend to grow and the industrial revolution changed a lot of factories and a lot of the people moved away or died and then new people came in and changed things around again" I commented.**

"**Damn Tory governments" Prince Larten said.**

"**Yes fuck them all and bring back Labour" I nodded.**

"**Definitely it would make a big difference to this country if Labour were in power again. What was Gordon Brown thinking?" Prince Larten said.**

"**I am not sure but he certainly was not thinking clearly when he handed power over to those Tory wankers" I replied.**

"**I agree, I saw it on the news and I thought back then that it was a huge mistake and now look at what has happened. There is no money, no jobs; humans are suffering and the people in my city who I feel connected to are finding it hard to live" Prince Larten said angrily. **

"**I know darling but there is nothing that we can do and anyway humans should not concern us as we have our own issues to deal with but I understand why you are worried about the people in your city" I remarked.**

"**When we arrive in Portsmouth I have business to attend to before we go to the Cirque Du Freak. I want to rendezvous with an old friend of mine if he is still around. I hope that he is but if he has died or moved away which is likely I will forget about him" Prince Larten said.**

"**Who is this friend?" I asked.**

"**He is actually one of my descendants but he does not know that. His great, great grandmother married my brother Cyrus, they had eight children and I was fortunate enough to meet one of them before I left to live at the mountain full time. I would like to know if my great, great nephew is still alive as he carries my last name but obviously he thinks that I am just his friend as if I told him who I really was and how old I am he would be freaked out" Prince Larten said.**

"**So I actually have in-laws? That is so cool" I said.**

"**I thought that you would be pleased so we are going to pay a visit to Chez Crepsley which is his family home and it is quite small but it is nice and he will welcome us both as he will be interested to know that I have tied the knot to use a human expression" Prince Larten said.**

"**That sounds interesting, just think of what he would say if he knew who we were" I said and smiled. I actually had in-laws who were alive and they were not vampires either! **

**The final two days that we spent on the boat passed without incident and I was so glad to finally stretch my legs and get some fresh air into my lungs. **

"**Wow what a city Portsmouth is, it is rather large and it is quite a busy place" I said when I looked around at the docks and at the streets that had endless traffic on their roads.**

"**I agree it is rather busy. The first thing that we have to do is find a decent hotel and sort out unpacking our things" Prince Larten said.**

"**Yes that is a good point as this city is full of tourists and we are not likely to find anywhere to stay that is decent so we may have to sleep rough" I said and I was not impressed with that prospect.**

"**Well maybe my nephew will put us up for a few nights if we ask him" Prince Larten replied.**

"**That is a good point. When is the funeral?" I asked.**

"**Tomorrow at six pm, they are having an evening ceremony so that we can go to it" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well we should go and see if your great, great nephew is at home then" I replied.**

"**Yes that is a good idea. Darren do not say anything about who we are and let me do the talking" Prince Larten said.**

"**Stop ordering me around Larten. I am a bloody Prince for fuck's sake" Prince Darren said.**

"**That language is shockingly awful but you make a good point Sire" Prince Larten said sarcastically. **

"**Oh I love it when you get sarky" Prince Darren replied mockingly.**

"**Why you insolent little…" Prince Larten said but he did not finish his sentence as he thought better of it.**

"**That is enough please as you are both supposed to be gentlemen and saying that in front of a lady is not very polite" I cut in whilst I smiled at Prince Darren and I gave Prince Larten an icy stare.**

"**Everybody we are here now" Prince Larten said as he pointed to a small, white gate that led into a garden with a driveway next to it and I got my first glimpse of Chez Crepsley. **

**I was kind of excited but I was nervous too as I did not know what to expect from meeting Prince Larten's descendants.**

**Prince Larten rapped upon the dark blue door and then he pressed the doorbell. A small, older man opened the door. He was wearing stripy pyjamas, slippers and an old fashioned moth-eaten dressing gown. **

"**Hello I am looking for a Mr Crepsley. Does he still live here?" Prince Larten enquired politely.**

"**You're looking at him Sir. Who are you three people?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**I am Mr Horston, this is my wife Sarah and our son Darren" Prince Larten said.**

"**Mr Horston, the Mr Horston? Well I never it has been fifteen years where on Earth have you been my old friend?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**I have travelled the world and I have settled down" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well come in and make yourselves at home. Welcome to Chez Crepsley" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**Thank you" Prince Larten said and we stepped inside the door and over the threshold. **

"**Enter of your own free will" Mr Crepsley said and then he smiled broadly at Prince Darren who smiled back and entered the house. **

"**So my old friend what is the news that brings you here?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**I have come for a funeral of my close friend who was my employer" Prince Larten said.**

"**Oh I am sorry to hear that, I lost my wife two months ago to cancer. You do remember Sheila don't you?" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**Of course I remember her, how could I forget those eyes of hers?" Prince Larten asked himself sadly.**

"**I don't know but nobody ever forgot Sheila's eyes, they were so green just like that other woman who you brought here once Anna somebody wasn't it?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Oh you mean Arra Sails my ex and she is dead I am afraid to say" Prince Larten replied.**

"**When did that happen and what happened?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**We were travelling and there was an attack. We were mugged and Arra was killed in the cross fire from the robber's gun and my own pistol" Prince Larten lied.**

"**Oh well I am very sorry for your loss my friend because I remember how much that you loved her and I remember you bringing her here, we had such a laugh that night and I still have some of your belongings here in a box upstairs, it is not much but I have Arra's pendant, the one that matches the one around your neck and I have one of your knives, not that I ever understood why you carried a knife" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**It was the one that I used to gut rabbits and fish with but I have long since forgotten about it until now and I was wondering what happened to that matching pendant as I could not find it anywhere in any of my belongings, it is my wife Sarah's now if you want it my dear" Prince Larten explained.**

"**Do you think that Arra would approve?" I asked.**

"**Well she left you her other jewellery minus that bracelet so I guess that it applies to that pendant too" Prince Larten replied.**

"**What does it look like?" I asked.**

"**Well it is the other half of my one so they join together and then the engraving is revealed. It is an engraving of a heart with one half that says always and the other half says together" Prince Larten explained.**

"**That is sweet" I said.**

"**Arra had them made for us both when she was young and we were sneaking around, that way we were always connected even when we were apart and nobody else knew about these pendants either until I told you" Prince Larten replied, he looked sad but happy to know that his property was safe. **

"**I'll just go and fetch the box" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**Thank you" Prince Larten said.**

"**You're welcome Larten. By the way did you know that one of my ancestors shared your name?" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**I did know that actually. It is quite an unusual name I grant you and I have never met anybody who shares it" Prince Larten said.**

"**It's just I had a crazy thought that we were related but if you were ancestor you would have to be one hundred and eighty at least and you'd be very dead" Mr Crepsley laughed.**

"**Well not necessarily" Prince Larten said.**

"**What do you mean not necessarily?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Vampires live for up to seven hundred years" Prince Larten said and he smiled.**

"**But they don't exist everybody knows that" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**They do and I should know" Prince Larten replied.**

"**What on Earth do you mean? You are having me on" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**I am not. I am your ancestor and if you check my story it will fill in the gaps in your family tree. I am a vampire and I am one hundred and eighty two years old. Sarah is also a vampire and so too is Darren there" Prince Larten said and we held up our scarred fingertips. **

"**No way you have to be messing with me" Mr Crepsley replied, he looked totally mystified by our revelation.**

"**I am being deadly serious, watch this" Prince Larten said and he showed off his superior speed. **

"**What the hell was that?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**My vampiric speed and watch this" Prince Larten said and he picked up a log and he snapped it as if it were a twig with his bare hands.**

"**That was pretty impressive Larten. You said your name was Horston though not Crepsley" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**I am actually a Crepsley but I hid the truth as I did not want to freak you out but we are related and you are actually my great, great nephew" Prince Larten revealed.**

"**Hold on a minute. If you are my great, great uncle then that means that my granny was not making it up when she said about how you disappeared as a young man and there were rumours that you had become one of the undead but we thought that it was a Halloween horror story and nothing more" Mr Crepsley said. **

"**I did disappear but I only moved to Vampire Mountain and then I came back here with Arra to see you as you are my only living family in this city where I grew up" Prince Larten revealed.**

"**Was Arra a vampire too?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Yes Arra was a vampiress and she was killed in battle" Prince Larten said.**

"**So why did you tell me that you were mugged and that she was shot in the crossfire?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Because I was trying to hide my other side, I did not want to frighten you and scare you away because you are my only family and I feel a connection to you" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I have got three children and two grandchildren, they have your last name and they are also your family" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**Oh well it is good to know that my line still goes on and as I cannot have children of my own I am so pleased to have other family members who are alive and well" Prince Larten said.**

"**That is a shame. Is that a vampire thing?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Yes unfortunately, I did have a daughter who was a gift to us but she died of cot death at two nights old and we have never had another child" Prince Larten explained. He looked sad and upset at remembering our beloved Jiana who was so cruelly taken from both of us. **

"**What do you mean by a gift? Did you adopt her or something?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Yes we were given her at birth as her natural parents were unable to care for her so we stepped in and we were going to raise her as our own as a vampiress in the mountain but it did not work out that way" Prince Larten replied.**

"**I am sorry to hear that, anyway please make yourselves at home and do try not to sit upon the kittens" Mr Crepsley said as he pointed to a small bundle of fur that was on one of the sofa cushions, it was moving around and meowing. **

"**They are adorable" I said as I picked up one of the small fluff balls in my hands and held it close to my chest.**

"**They are going to be Persian cats so they will be very fluffy and very high grooming maintenance" Mr Crepsley said as he picked up two of the other kittens and cuddled them. **

"**How many are there?" I asked.**

"**I have seven on that cushion and there are five more in the other room, they are different litters so I keep them separate" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**Cats do not like vampires, they hiss at us normally and their blood is poisonous to us" Prince Larten said, he looked unimpressed by the kitten that was climbing on his lap slowly. **

"**They are adorable though, Larten I want one" I said.**

"**You know that is not wise, we cannot have a cat wondering around the mountain however it would keep the rats at bay" Prince Larten said.**

"**I know that but I love cats and these kittens seem to have taken to us. I mean look at the one on your lap" I smirked because the kitten who had been trying to sit on Prince Larten's lap had managed to actually sit there without Prince Larten moving it back onto the cushion and now the kitten had curled up like a little ball of fur that was sleeping and purring. **

"**Well we already have a horse, two Harris hawks, a tarantula, Evra's old snake and that wolf pack that hang around you which you use to hunt with and pull that sledge in the snow, a cat would be too much as it is hard enough trying to find people to take care of our animals as it is" Prince Larten said sternly. **

"**Oh Larten please give this to me, I swear that I will never ask for anything ever again" I pleaded whilst I stroked the three kittens who were on my lap. **

"**You said that when I bought those ice dance outfits for us" Prince Larten said.**

"**You love ice dancing though and you look so good in that red Lycra" I replied. **

"**Alright fine if you want a kitten you can have one, I do owe you for the way I treated you the other night. How much are you selling your kittens for?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I want thirty pounds for the females and twenty for the males but they are wormed and vaccinated" Mr Crepsley replied.**

"**I will have one of each please, my wallet is in my pocket" Prince Larten said.**

"**Thank you" I said, I was really happy.**

**Mr Crepsley took the wallet and extracted fifty pounds from it before he put it back into Prince Larten's pocket.**

"**Which ones do you want my love?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I will have this one and that one over there" I said as I picked out the two smallest, fluffiest kittens. One kitten was black all over and the other was a pure cream colour. They both had bright blue eyes and they seemed to be really friendly with us.**

"**I am afraid about what the Clan will say but we are in charge so they will have to put up with it" I said as I played with my new pets with a piece of string. **

"**What do you mean you are in charge?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Well Prince Larten and I are invested, we get to tell the Clan what to do and they have to obey us. I am a Princess and I happen to be the Clan's first ever Princess as before me it was only men in charge" I explained. **

"**Can I make you a drink?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**No I am OK thank you, I have plenty of my own food and drink" I said as I got out my pack of food that was full of bread and other things.**

"**You won't feed around me will you? I don't like the sight of blood" Mr Crepsley said.**

"**We will not feed around you if you do not wish us to as it can be quite messy because when we feed we drink lots and we feed each other sometimes" Prince Larten said.**

"**How does that work?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Well we kiss each other and we share blood like that, it can be quite messy but it brings us closer together as a blessed pair" Prince Larten said.**

"**What do you mean by a blessed pair?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Well it is like a vampire wedding where you take vows, exchange blessed rings and then the Princes themselves bless you" I explained.**

"**Was it fun?" Mr Crepsley asked.**

"**Yes but it was very expensive as we had to order in so much food and champagne for the celebration afterwards which was so much work but it was worth it in the end as we all had such a great night" I replied in answer to Mr Crepsley's question. **

"**So you have this funeral to go to, what are you wearing?" Prince Larten asked me.**

"**Well I thought that I would wear my black mourning robes and minimal jewels like what I wore to Prince Paris's funeral. What about you?" I asked.**

"**I will follow suit and wear black mourning robes too I think that would be appropriate but I may wear my ceremonial dagger that I have been saving" Prince Larten said.**

"**What does it represent?" I asked.**

"**That I am strong and that although I am mourning I am still able to defend myself" Prince Larten said.**

"**That is a good representation to have" I replied. **

**I was not looking forward to Mr Tall's funeral but I had to go as he had been my boss, he had helped me out and he also supported me when I had split up with Prince Larten over the Samantha incident which although I had long since forgiven I had never forgotten how hurt I had been at the time, but if it had not of happened then we never would have become blessed mates, so it proved to me that everything happens for a reason. **

**We left for the Cirque Du Freak which was a fair flit away from us but we left in plenty of time. Prince Larten held me above his head whilst he flitted, I held my arms out and it did feel like I was flying but it was hard work so he did not do it for long however it was fun and then we both rested before I started to flit towards the Cirque Du Freak, Prince Darren followed behind us and we arrived at our destination in plenty of time to rest as we were all shattered but Prince Larten was the most tired as he had carried me above his head, Prince Darren was not used to flitting such a long way as he had been living in the mountain for so long he had not had to flit anywhere for years which meant that he was out of practice and the speed always made him queasy just like Gavnur. **

**Gavnur hated flitting or so he said but it was the only way that he got to go and visit Liz who was his human mate and it was very unusual for a Vampire General to have a human mate but they made it work and Liz never minded going out with Gavnur, in fact she enjoyed the benefits like his skills and his strength. Liz always felt safe around Gavnur or so she said when I had met her some five years earlier. **

"**I am not looking forward to this funeral" I said.**

"**Nobody likes funerals my dear but that is the problem with living for so long because your friends who are not in the Clan grow up, grow old and die whilst you still stay young and strong" Prince Larten said as we arrived at the place where the funeral was going to take place. **

**I was a little upset but I took my seat, every single Cirque Du Freak member and helper had arrived to pay their last respects to Mr Tall who for many of them had been a mentor, teacher and life saver as without him they would have been tortured or completely helpless in their lives before they met up with the Cirque Du Freak. **

**The funeral was strange, it was not human at all and it was nothing like a vampire funeral either but it was a funeral, we filed past Mr Tall's coffin and we all muttered words or prayers for him.**

"**Goodbye Mr Tall. Thank you for being a good boss. May the Gods of the Vampires keep your spirit safe and may you be permitted to enter Paradise or wherever it is that you wanted to go" I said when it was my turn to say something. **

**Then the Little People carried the coffin away and disappeared into the woods where a grave had been dug out and a head stone placed by it. The stone said;**

**In memory of Hibernious Tall,**

**Born 17th October 1954**

**Died 23rd March 2044**

**Aged 90 years**

**I did not believe that Mr Tall had been ninety years old and it made me seem old as I had not known the year until now, the year made me very old as I had joined the Clan in the year twenty eleven when I had been twenty one and now I was actually fifty four but I looked like I was twenty still, thirty three years had passed but I had only aged three years. I was shocked at how much time had passed and how long I had actually been in the Clan and how long that I had been with Prince Larten. **

**I thought that it had not been as long as that, even Jodie had aged slightly but as she was also a full blood vampiress she did not look much older. The other Cirque Du Freak members had all aged accordingly and Evra Von's children had grown up now, I had not seen them since they were children so it was shocking to see them as adults or older teenagers. **

"**Uncle Larten" I heard somebody say.**

**I turned around to see a young snake girl who was about six running towards Prince Larten.**

"**Who are you?" I asked.**

"**I'm Sasha, that's my granddad" Sasha said and she pointed to Evra. **

"**Who are your daddy and your mummy?" I asked.**

"**That is my dad" Sasha said as she pointed to Evra's oldest son and the woman next to him.**

"**That's uncle Larten" Sasha said and she pulled on Prince Larten's robe. **

"**Evra Von can you explain yourself?" Prince Larten asked and Evra Von came over to us to speak to us.**

"**What do I need to explain to you?" Evra Von said in his usual American accent.**

"**You can explain why your granddaughter is calling me uncle" Prince Larten said.**

"**It's cute and you are good with kids Larten" Evra Von said.**

"**It is not cute and I hate children, the only child I ever loved was my own daughter Jiana" Prince Larten said.**

"**Do you hate me?" Sasha asked looking sweet but upset.**

**At this point Prince Larten went rather red and he looked embarrassed at his comment.**

"**No I was just surprised to see children at a funeral, I am a bit upset and when I am upset I say things that I do not always mean. I am sorry" Prince Larten said.**

"**It's OK" Sasha replied.**

"**Who are you?" Sasha asked me.**

"**I am Sarah, I am Larten's wife" I said. I was trying to keep things simple.**

"**Larten is a bit grumpy" Sasha whispered in my ear.**

**I laughed and I nodded my head.**

"**He can be a bit grumpy sometimes but he is actually really kind when you get to know him" I said back in a whisper.**

**Evra Von left to speak to Prince Darren as they had not seen each other for years and they wanted to catch up. **

**Sasha stayed next to me she was still smiling up at Prince Larten who was looking really stern.**

"**Sarah I'm scared of Larten he looks dangerous" Sasha said to me.**

"**I am dangerous but not to you" Prince Larten said and then he smiled.**

"**Larten show Sasha your skills" I said.**

"**Do I have to?" prince Larten said.**

"**Yes" I insisted.**

**Prince Larten showed off his speed and his strength by smashing a few things and moving like lightning.**

"**Wanna see my trick?" Sasha asked.**

"**Alright impress me if you can" Prince Larten said.**

**So Sasha stuck out her tongue and wrapped it around her neck as it was that long, then she whistled and three snakes appeared out of nowhere and came to her.**

"**That is pretty impressive" Prince Larten said.**

"**What are you? You are not a snake girl like me but you are not human either" Sasha asked.**

"**I am a vampire and so is Sarah" Prince Larten said.**

"**Wow that is amazing. I know about vampires as my daddy told me about the Clan. I hope to be one when I am old enough" Sasha said.**

"**Alas that is not possible as snake blood is poisonous to vampires. If we blooded you we would die and so would you" I explained.**

"**I don't want anyone to die" Sasha said sadly.**

"**You are safe at the Cirque Du Freak Sasha stay here with your family as they love you. I had to leave my family behind when I became a vampiress" I replied.**

"**Why did you become a vampiress?" Sasha asked.**

"**I fell in love and I had nothing left to live for. I joined Larten because I love him" I said.**

"**Do you love Sarah?" Sasha asked inquisitively.**

"**Of course I do, she is my wife after all. I would not have married her if I did not love her" Prince Larten said.**

"**Aww that is sweet" Sasha said.**

"**I know it is. Do you want to fly?" I asked.**

"**Snakes can't fly" Sasha said.**

"**No but I can make you feel like you are flying" I said.**

"**How can you do that?" Sasha asked.**

"**I can lift you above my head, you hold out your arms like wings and I will move so fast you will be flying through the air" I said as I scooped Sasha up and held her high.**

"**OK let's fly" Sasha said and at that point I started to jog then I flitted at top speed around the camp ground and back again.**

"**That was fun" Sasha said when I stopped flitting.**

"**I thought that it would be, go and find Darren and tell him to play with you and say that that I said so" I replied.**

"**OK, see you soon" Sasha said and with that Sasha disappeared off to find Prince Darren whilst her snakes coiled up in the long grass. **

"**Sasha is a lovely girl and for a six year old she certainly speaks well" I said to Evra.**

"**Yes Sasha is rather smart, she is a sweet girl but she can be a handful. Come on you two there is surely a barrel of beer with your name on it somewhere" Evra said.**

"**Alright Evra I am coming" I said and I followed him to the food tent where sure enough there was beer by the barrel full. Prince Larten stayed behind but then he joined me in the food tent when he caught the smell of the hog roast that was cooking.**

**I got rather tipsy and I stumbled back to my seat. I had consumed a lot of alcohol and I had eaten a whole tonne of food. When we left the Cirque Du Freak's campground we went back to Chez Crepsley to rest and besides the kittens needed feeding so I stayed up and I fed them with milk and a small amount of cooked chicken breast which the kittens seemed to enjoy as they kept on mewing for more. **

**I was grateful to Prince Larten for allowing me to have the kittens. I curled up and the kittens all curled up beside me. They looked like one of those fluffy pillows that you can buy in any department store and the two smallest, fluffiest kittens were mine. **

**I wondered how I was going to repay Prince Larten for his gift; I could not give him his secret desire; if indeed he had a secret desire as I did not know what it was but I guessed that it would be something to do with seeing Arra again which was of course impossible or so I thought…**


	33. A Trip To See Lady Evanna

**Chapter 33 A Trip to see Lady Evanna**

**A few nights after we had returned to the mountain we put on our postponed show in front of a packed crowd and every Cirque Du Freak performer and helper turned up to watch our show. **

**I was in my dressing room getting my first costume on and I was warming up my voice ready for my first big solo number. I was kind of nervous but I was used to performing with the Cirque Du Freak so the whole being on stage thing did not bother me but what worried me was whether the Cirque Du Freak performers could stand to watch a show and not be in it or help out with making it or putting their own little twist on it to make it entertaining.**

**I walked on the stage for my first major part which was the beginning when we all sung our first piece which was called "Hail to the Clan" and everybody who was in the production sung this song with the choir who did a few harmonies over the top of our pre-recorded lyrics and our live singers. **

**Vanez began his narration of the actual story and we were all frantic back stage as we were making the final preparations before we went on stage to perform our parts and that meant doing our make-up and hair, getting our nails done and lacing up our costumes. I was lucky because for most of the show I was off stage until I came on with my big duet with Prince Larten and my showdown with Drucilla. **

**I walked upon the stage and as I started to sing the main song of the performance I could people clapping me and cheering me as I pranced around the stage picking berries and waiting for Prince Larten to appear and sing his part with me which would then lead into a dance as we had choreographed it that way. **

**I could hear people cheering us and clapping whilst I was singing at that gave me so much encouragement to do well and it was so much fun.**

**I was singing my heart out, I was singing live and completely unaided except for my in-ear monitors and my headset microphone that we all had as it was easier for us when we were dancing rather than holding a microphone as that got in the way of our dance moves. I felt like a total professional and the show went perfectly without a single problem as we had all worked so hard on the show. **

**I thoroughly enjoyed the show and I think that everybody else enjoyed it too. The crowd went mental when we performed our big finish and we got a standing ovation for end of the show. We took our bows and we had such a great time. I could not hear much as I still had my in-ear monitors in and my head microphone on so I had to remove them before I could speak to anyone as otherwise everything I said would have been very loud through the microphone and I could hear the static through my in-ears. **

**Prince Larten was the same; it was funny to see him with his microphone and in-ears on as it did not really suit him but we gave a perfect performance and everybody loved it. **

"**That was phenomenal Sarah, I had no idea that you could sing like that. You rocked that show" Vanez said when we were out of our costumes and in the Hall where the audience were.**

"**I sorted out the sound and lighting ages ago, I was singing live over pre-recorded lyrics and it worked really well. My in-ear monitors helped me no end and I have to say with my scars on my heart that I have never heard Prince Larten sing so well but he does look funny with that head set and in-ear monitors in as it does not suit him" I replied.**

"**It was quite comical to see that but it made the performance even better and I did not know that Prince Larten had such a talent for singing. You are going to have to do it at the Cirque Du Freak as your performance" Vanez replied.**

"**I wish that Arra could have seen us perform" I said.**

"**So do I my dear but we did her proud" Prince Larten said.**

"**I agree and she probably heard us from Paradise anyway. Do you think that Jiana would have sung like us?" I asked.**

"**I have no doubt that Jiana would have had your voice, you were incredible and I found it hard to match your standards" Prince Larten said.**

"**Really, you found it hard to match up to my standards?" I asked.**

"**I did and I am not used to those in-ear contraptions so I was off a little and as we were dancing I had to improvise as I went wrong" Prince Larten said.**

"**You sounded fine and those in-ear monitors are hard to get used to but they do work and that head set microphone was great as it gave us the freedom to move" I said.**

"**Yes but again the wires messed me up as I am not used to having wires and microphone packs coming out of my costume or indeed my clothing and I had two" Prince Larten replied.**

"**So did I but it does not bother me. If you want you can sing without aids but it is harder to hear the music over the band and the pre-recorded lyrics without in-ear monitors in" I replied.**

"**I will practice with them and get used to them. What is that crackling noise anyway?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**That is the static and it is normal to get a little feedback" I said.**

"**Oh right. I am not very knowledgeable on modern contraptions, in my youth you had to sing completely unaided with nothing but a band or maybe a backing singer, there were no microphones, lighting desks or in-ear things" Prince Larten said.**

"**They did their job though and everybody loved it and that was the main aim of the show" I replied. **

"**Yes and I enjoyed performing it too but it is not the same without Arra to cheer for me and sing the backing lyrics" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Well Arra would have done you proud and I will never be her but I hope that I did her justice with my own voice" I said.**

"**You sounded like her but your voice is not quite as alluring as hers was which is good because in a performance like that you do not want an alluring voice you want a strong, operatic voice" Prince Larten replied.**

"**That is the sort of voices that we have as I was trained and you have a talent that puts Pavarotti to shame" I said.**

"**You cannot be serious Sarah. Me as good as if not better than Pavarotti" Prince Larten said.**

"**I am deadly serious Larten you have the best operatic voice that I have ever heard and you are not bad at the pop stuff either" I complimented him.**

"**I am stunned. I never knew that I was that good" Prince Larten said.**

"**Oh believe me your voice is unrivalled by anyone and I think that at the next council you should enter that howling contest. Then when you win you will become known as Prince Larten of the Howl instead of that Yebba who always wins because he has no-one there to challenge him properly" I said.**

"**Do I look like the kind of Prince who stands up and howls like a wolf for ages until everyone else is silent?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Well no but it would be fun, it is only meant for a laugh" I replied.**

"**You know that before that General Yebba came along no-one could howl like Arra. She was called "Wolf-girl" by some of the Clan as she was so good at howling and the wolves loved her. That is why she could hunt so successfully; all of the wolves helped her and it was like she was a fellow pack member" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Is there anything that Arra could not do? She sounds like she really was a marvel" I asked.**

"**Well Arra was good at everything but she was never very good at swimming, she loved to skate but swimming frightened her for some reason and even if I held her she was still afraid" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I never knew that. Everybody has a fear. My fears are losing you and the Vampaneze and I used to be afraid of Des Tiny too but not now obviously however he was pure evil" I said.**

"**You are afraid of losing me?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Of course I am afraid of losing you. I will lose you either to another vampiress, a wound, old age or illness" I replied.**

"**Well let me assure you that no vampiress will get me after that fall out on the ferry, I am not ill. I am still very young at just over two hundred, I am not likely to get ill or get wounded either so you will not lose me for quite a while yet" Prince Larten assured me.**

"**Well that is good to know. I will be absolutely destroyed and broken if you die before me" I commented.**

"**Well I will try to keep safe but nothing is forever in this life" Prince Larten said.**

"**I know that Larten. I was just thinking about my family and who will be left as it has been so long since I left home. I am not a little twenty one year old anymore even though I still look like one. Will I ever age?" I asked jokingly.**

"**Yes you will age one year for every ten that passes as you know so you are very young still and you have your youth which you should cherish despite all of your scars" Prince Larten said.**

"**Yes I know. Anyway I have been thinking about visiting Lady Evanna as we have not ever been to see her and it is about time that we met" I said.**

"**Well you killed her father so she may not even like you; she may meet you and then kill you in revenge for her father" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I will take that risk and anyway Lady Evanna is a great sorceress and I am sure that she can do something to contact Arra or maybe she can give you a picture of her or something" I replied.**

"**Yes maybe she can but why would you do that?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**It is because I love you. I know that you miss her and if you had something with her image on it I am sure that you would treasure it" I said in response to Prince Larten's comment. **

"**I would but I have you now and Arra has Darryl and they are happy together in Paradise so why should I go and see Lady Evanna to get a picture of my long dead ex-mate?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**I do not know but I thought that you would like it" I replied.**

"**I would but it was a long time ago and I have long since got over Arra's passing" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Well, if that is the case then why do you still dream about her? Then you wake up sweating and you sometimes call me Arra" I asked.**

"**Do I really do that? I have no memory of it" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well you do that and then it disturbs me to feel you tossing and turning in bed" I replied.**

"**I was unaware of it but fine if you want to meet Lady Evanna I will take you to see her. Lady Evanna may be able to contact Arra by using a Ouija board or something which would be an experience" Prince Larten said.**

"**I agree. How far is Lady Evanna's home from here?" I asked as I was up for another adventure.**

"**It is many hundreds of miles away and most people who go there miss it as the entrance has been cleverly disguised" Prince Larten said.**

"**So it is in a place that cannot be found except by those people who know where it is? That sounds just like the Pirates of the Caribbean movie" I said as I remembered exactly how long ago that film had been made and I remembered exactly how long ago it had been since I had gone to a cinema or watched a DVD except now everything was on HD 3D Blu-Ray as technology had moved on a lot since I had gone to the cinema last. I missed watching the old VHS tapes and even DVDs were good but HD 3D Blu-Ray with my enhanced vision was out of this world trust me. **

**It was like being in the movie as everything seemed to pop out of the screen and it was always right next to you like a HD 3D projection. **

**It was mad and I was not used to having so much technology around me as the mountain was devoid of most modern conveniences except for a huge generator and a sound system that we had needed for the big show that we had performed, we had top of the range microphones and the best in-ear monitors that we could find. **

**The equipment was made for us specifically so no-one else could use it not that anybody would know how to use in-ear monitors unless they were singers. **

**I was looking forward to travelling to see Lady Evanna. This sorceress had intrigued me and I hoped that she would be able to help Prince Larten. We took the carriage as far as we could and then we travelled by hired snow mobiles over the icy paths as snow mobiles have good grip on them but carriage wheels don't. **

**Also snow mobiles are faster and they don't need feeding or shelter at night unlike our carriage horse who was housed in stables until we returned. **

**I was looking forward to meeting Lady Evanna but I was scared that she would blame me for Des Tiny's death and as I had killed him it was my fault but it was in revenge for the hell that he had put me through over the years. **

**Although I had killed him many, many years ago it may still have caused Lady Evanna to get revenge on us if the opportunity ever arose although she had done nothing to us so far even though she could have quite easily found us and made us pay for murdering her father. **

**We rode our snow mobiles as far as we could until the ground was no longer icy and covered in snow then we left them behind in a secure lock-up storage container that would house our snow mobiles until we returned to the mountain. **

**It felt good to be out in open fields and farm land again as it had been so long since I had crossed a cornfield or hopped over a stream in the countryside although I had seen enough of woodland and forests to last me a lifetime. **

**I was even more pleased when I saw a barn that was full of hay and there was even a very cute but very cheeky rat which was sat inside a bag of grain eating as if he or she had not a care in the world that we were there. **

**We needed to rest as it was nearly dawn and we had not slept in a hayloft for years. It brought with it a lot of good memories. I had memories of hunting and hanging up my kills on hooks, I had memories of sleeping on warm, dry hay. **

**I had a recollection of our personal hayloft that we had lived in for ages and it made me wonder if it was still there or if it had been knocked down. The farmer would probably be very old or dead as he was in his sixties when we were first there and that was a long time ago.**

**I had missed the countryside so much and I hadn't quite realised how much until I was crossing fields and hopping over hedges like I did in the old days. **

"**I miss the countryside" I said one evening when we were walking up a huge hill that had a gate on the other side of it. **

"**I do too but I am used to moving around" Prince Larten replied stiffly.**

"**Larten, we moved around so much before we settled in the mountain I feel like the mountain is my home even though it is not.**

**I love the mountain and I love being invested but I miss traveling so much as we used to travel all over the place with the Cirque Du Freak and I loved meeting new people and I love seeing new sights but now we are stuck in the mountain attending to Prince's business all the time. **

**I feel lucky that we are able to leave the mountain to go and visit Lady Evanna" I replied. **

"**Yes but remember what I told you. We are a long way off and we may not even be welcome" Prince Larten said.**

"**I know that Larten but I am just happy to get out of that stuffy, smelly mountain for a while" I replied.**

"**It is not that bad Sarah. I have stayed in much worse conditions" Prince Larten replied stiffly.**

"**I know that you have stayed in much worse places and being invested helps but still I miss travelling all over the world" I said.**

"**Well we only have a few more nights of travelling and then we will be there at Lady Evanna's residence, I hope that you like frogs" Prince Larten said.**

"**They are OK I guess but I am not too keen on them" I said.**

"**Well Lady Evanna keeps hundreds of them on her property and they all have a job apparently" Prince Larten said.**

"**Oh right, does she have a cat?" I asked.**

"**I do not believe so, why?" Prince Larten asked. **

"**Well traditionally sorceresses keep a cat or two as it is meant to be good luck" I explained.**

"**I am sure that Lady Evanna has ways of making luck without giving a home to a four legged fur ball" Prince Larten replied.**

"**You really do not like cats, do you?" I asked.**

"**No, I am not too keen on them. I prefer hunting dogs and hawks to cats" Prince Larten said in his bored monotone voice.**

"**Well those kittens are ours so I expect you to do your share of feeding them" I replied.**

"**I will of course do my part but they are yours as you asked for them and by buying those kittens I have got no money left at all until I get another pay cheque from the Cirque Du Freak" Prince Larten said.**

"**Well I did not know that we were that skint to be honest. I still have lots of money left as I have not made any purchases for a while" I replied.**

"**I knew that you had money left over. How much do we have?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Well after paying for the snow mobile hire, the stables for the horse, our big show and all of the technical equipment we have roughly eight thousand Romanian Lei on me and I can get that exchanged for other money tomorrow" I replied.**

"**Alright, we are not as destitute as what I thought which is good but Romanian money is no good here is it?" Prince Larten asked.**

"**Not really as we left Romania a while ago but it is roughly seven thousand pounds in English money and in Euros it is quite a lot too" I replied.**

"**Well we have enough to travel with and we have enough to stay in a hotel or two before we arrive at our destination" Prince Larten said as we boarded a train that was headed for Germany and the Black Forest region. **

"**Well that is good. Where exactly are we heading?" I asked.**

"**Well Lady Evanna travels a lot but her main residence is in Ireland" Prince Larten said.**

"**Why are we heading for Germany then?" I asked.**

"**I wanted to hook up with an old friend of mine and from Germany we can get to France, then we can cross the channel to Ireland" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Who is this old friend?" I asked.**

"**A fellow Clan member who has missed the past two councils but she is really nice when you get to know her" Prince Larten said.**

"**Who is she?" I asked suspiciously.**

"**Her name is Florence and she is one of Lady Evanna's old servant girls but I owe her a visit as I promised that I would stop by her house if I was ever in Germany" Prince Larten said.**

"**Oh right. That is fine by me but why go now? Why not go on the way back from Ireland?" I asked.**

"**I am not sure where Florence lives and it has been many years since I last searched for her mental signal. The last time we saw each other it was at one of Lady Evanna's parties and we were totally hammered as usual. I sat on one of the frogs and it did not go down too well" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Oh right. That cannot have been too good" I replied.**

"**No, it was not a good experience for the frog or for me but that was a long, long time ago. That was when Arra had only just joined the Clan and I was young and stupid" Prince Larten replied.**

"**So that was nearly two hundred years ago and that is a long time" I said. **

"**It is a long time but for vampires the time seems to go past a lot quicker even though we do not age. I am not even sure if Florence is still alive" Prince Larten said. **

"**Well if she is a Clan member than surely she will be alive still" I said.**

"**But why has she not been to the Council? It is mandatory to go at least once" Prince Larten replied.**

"**Maybe she does not know the way as it is quite confusing at first" I answered. **

"**But that was up to her mentor to show her the way and he must have done a poor job of raising her if he will not even present her to us" Prince Larten said. **


End file.
